As part of the latest piece of work for AABE, which was funded by the World Bank’s International Development Association, ACCA produced manuals and working papers for AQA and provided in-person coaching and training for the board’s nascent audit quality assurance team. Following this, ACCA experts mentored the team as it undertook three audit quality assurance reviews at local firms.

Around 180 Ethiopian auditors also received hybrid  training in International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM) 1 and International Accounting Standards (IASs).

Passion for audit

Barnabas Ayalew FCCA, who leads the developing audit quality assurance team for AABE alongside his role as head of internal audit at Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA), has been instrumental in the development and delivery of audit quality reviews in Ethiopia, as part of this project. 

His enthusiasm and support for AABE's wider work to improve standards in financial reporting and audit in the country was important to progressing the work. 'Raising standards is fundamental for Ethiopia's future development and we need to build our capacity in this area,' he says. 'Wherever I go, I accentuate the importance of audit and audit quality.'

As the leader of a small team of AABE colleagues, he was the first to undergo training in audit quality assurance and has since consulted on AABE's behalf on audit quality reviews for some of the largest local audit firms. ‘It has opened our eyes in many, many ways,’ he says.

‘It’s a new culture, a new regulatory environment,’ he continues, noting that audit firms are finding the process challenging. 

Scepticism

In many cases, the biggest issue is professional scepticism, Barnabas remarks.

‘Professional scepticism starts in the planning stage, where the auditor should not assume everything provided by the client is correct,' he explains. ’If the audit is wrong at this stage, the whole process will be wrong.’

Context may be important here. Until recently, financial reports have not been widely used in the country. That may change now that Ethiopia has launched a new capital market – it began operating in October 2024 – and potential investors become acutely interested in financial disclosures.

Without reliable financial reports backed by quality audits, it is difficult to generate trust among investors. ‘Prosperity will not come without a trusted system,’ Barnabas says.