The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Nigeria, led by Uduak Udoh, its Chairman/President and Chief Audit Executive, First Bank of Nigeria Limited joined other Chief Audit Executives and Internal Audit practitioners and professional across Africa at the 6th Annual Conference of the African Federation of Institutes of Internal Auditors (AFIIA) organised in Gaborone, Botswana. The event was held from 27-31 May 2019 at the Gaborone International Convention Centre.
The event themed “The Future of Internal Audit is Now. Assure. Advise. Anticipate” was convened to promote and reinforce the role of Internal Audit as a fundamentally proactive field, through its assurance and advisory roles with a view to helping management intervene before risks materialise.
According to Uduak Udoh, the Chairman/President, Institute of Internal Auditors (Nigeria) and Chief Audit Executive, First Bank of Nigeria Limited; “In today’s global age, fast driven by the momentous technological advancement, internal auditors while providing compliance-related assurance over cyber risks, should also apply new mind-sets and methods – aided by technological approaches – to audit cyber risks.”
“Internal audit should develop sound understanding of upcoming events e.g. block chain, dynamic hedging, instant payment processing etc, and the position of regulators, in order to assist their organisations’ readiness”, he concluded.
Reinforcing Uduak’s position, Richard Chambers, CEO/President, Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Global said; “The value of internal audit is not in looking in the past, but rather the value in internal audit is looking into the future”.
The event had 600 participants from across Africa and the world; notably Margretmary Mushango, President of the Institute of Internal Auditors Botswana (IIAB); Eric Yankah, President, Africa Federation of Institutes of Internal Auditors; Femi Osinubi and Kikelomo Asuelime, both Board members of Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Nigeria and Humphrey Okorie, CEO, IIA Nigeria amongst others