education and return home to hopefully have a bigger impact in my industry and contribute my quota to the development of our society back home. In my mind, relocating immediately and being one of the pioneers in the development of TP across Africa was a no brainer. However, most people were perplexed by my decision to give up a blossoming career in the US to pursue a career in Africa, where there were no guarantees that TP as a discipline would be successful. I must confess that my big decision came with significant opportunity costs, such as separating my family for the most part and giving up on my US Green Card status and my path to citizenship. In spite of the unpopularity of my decision, I transferred to EY South Africa in the later part of 2012 as an SM. However, my target destination was Nigeria, so after just 9 months, I finally got the opportunity to transfer to EY Nigeria. After less than a month, I left EY for KPMG, where I spent over 4 years helping develop their TP practice. I had a short stint with PWC at some point but returned to KPMG. In 2017, I finallymademy dreammove to join four like-minded partners to revive the iconic Andersen brand in theNigerian market. I left KPMG as an Associate Director and joined Andersen Nigeria as a founding partner and head of our TP Services unit. Nigeria was Andersen Global’s first footprint in Africa. Today, Andersen Global has a presence in 48 African countries and over 120 countries globally as a member or collaborating firm. Over my 9-year professional career in Nigeria, a number of people have been influential; however, two mentors have been most influential and impactful. When I decided to consider other Big 4 firms besides EY in the Nigeria market, I started talking to both KPMG and PWC. The Head of TP at KPMG, Tayo Ogungbero, informed me I had to talk to both the Head of Tax, Victor Onyenkpa, and the then Managing Partner, the late Seyi Bickersteth. I was a bit nervous about my interview with Seyi, but it turned out to be what sealed the deal. He commenced the interview by surprisingly asking me how I was doing in my native Ghanaian dialect, Twi. He then informed me that his wife is actually Ghanaian and a former Motowner. We got to chit-chatting about Ghana, and US basketball, before having a more serious talk about his expectations of me and how they’re willing to give me the necessary support for me to succeed in developing the TP practice. I knew then and there that I was going to join KPMG, which I did. After 2 years of helping develop the KPMG TP practice to number 1 in the Nigerian market, I became disillusioned when I felt the firm didn’t have a clear path for expatriates to become equity partners. As such, I decided to join PWC. Once again, Seyi came in and had a candid conversation with me. But I had already accepted the PWC offer and couldn’t go against my word. When I went to see Seyi in his office to inform him of my final decision to leave despite our prior conversation, I expected him to be angry. Rather, he told me he understood me even though he disagreed with my decision and indicated that I would give him a call if I realised that the grass was not as green on the other side as I thought. Lo and behold, it didn’t take me more than a week at PWC to come to the realisation that the grass wasn’t as green as I thought. Once again, Oga Seyi was instrumental in my return to KPMG. 41
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