The tender to develop the communication and citizen engagement strategy for the Maputo metropolitan mobility project, funded by the World Bank, brought EY into a field where the Mozambican market does not yet immediately recognize it: communication applied to transformation. The surprise was not only due to the value of the contract or the subsequent suspension of the process, but also because a multinational historically associated with auditing and traditional consulting was linked to a communication component that many would, at first glance, expect to be handled by a specialized agency.
This was the collateral effect of the Maputo Metropolitan Transport Agency case. Among the four consulting contracts suspended by the Ministry of Transport and Logistics in March was the assignment awarded to EY to design the communication and citizen engagement strategy. The authorities justified the suspension on procedural grounds related to the tender process and the approval of funding terms, not due to any public conclusion regarding the firm’s technical capacity.
Faced with the surprise generated by the fact that, in Mozambique, it is not widely known for this type of work, EY seeks to frame the issue within a broader movement that goes beyond Mozambique’s borders. This reflects an operating logic of the group’s Lusophone hub (and a wider sector trend) that has been in place since 2025. In responses sent to Diário Económico, the consultancy argues that communication in these projects is not merely about disseminating decisions, but is part of the execution of change itself. According to the company, it is an approach “designed around people,” based on diagnosis, narrative, content, and user experience, transforming information into effective engagement.
This argument aligns with the company’s international repositioning. In June 2025, EY launched EY Studio+, presented as an integrated offering combining design, marketing, sales, technology, and customer experience. At the time, the consultancy acknowledged that this unit operates in a space already occupied by major competitors with similar offerings, such as Accenture Song and Deloitte Digital. It also explained that this shift had been in preparation for several years, supported by strategic acquisitions of specialized marketing and communication agencies across various markets. There are already public examples of this trajectory in the Portuguese market (part of the Lusophone hub that also includes EY Mozambique), with brands such as Worten and Sumol cited by the consultancy to illustrate its new front in transformation, marketing, and customer experience.
In its responses, EY does not disclose clients from this new business area in Angola and Mozambique “for confidentiality reasons,” but states that several projects are already underway. “Many transformations fail not in the technical design of the solution, but due to a lack of people’s adoption.” For this reason, the firm argues, communication must be aligned with transformation processes from the outset: “to explain the purpose of change, manage expectations, listen to resistance, align leadership, and facilitate the adoption of new behaviors.” The consultancy adds that it seeks to offer clients “a single thread, from strategy to implementation, including brand, image, and content,” in order to avoid fragmentation between diagnosis, messaging, and execution.
Thus, what still caused surprise in Maputo—seeing a firm like EY win a contract in the communication domain—has long ceased to be exceptional in more mature markets, where major consulting firms have for years competed with large agencies in branding, marketing, customer experience, and customer journey design.
A Broader Movement
Outside Mozambique, particularly in more mature markets such as Europe and the United States, EY is not alone on this path that major global consultancies have been following for years. Accenture transformed its former Interactive division into Accenture Song in 2022, formally positioning it as a platform combining marketing, commerce, design, sales, and business innovation. PwC, at a global level, has an explicit marketing transformation practice focused on customer research, engagement strategy, personalization, and customer experience. Deloitte Digital presents itself as a combination of business transformation, technological implementation, and digital agency capabilities, while KPMG develops, across several international markets, a range of marketing, sales, and service transformation offerings centered on personalized experiences and growth.
In other words, the integration of consulting, communication, and experience has moved from the periphery to the core of strategy for several global firms.
Source: Diário Económico
