How forensic accounting can stem Nigeria’s N2.5 trillion yearly fraud loss

The Society for Forensic Accounting & Fraud Prevention (sfafp) has revealed that Nigeria loses N2.5 trillion yearly to fraud and corruption. For the African continent, the society stated that almost 25 per cent of its budgeted public sector revenue is lost to the same scourge.

Speaking during the 4th virtual induction of 192 associates recently in Abuja, Chairman, Iliyasu B. Gashinbaki said the society is poised to turn the page by refocusing on continuous institutional strengthening and capacity building of law enforcement agencies and key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

“In addition, more strategic domestic and international partnerships shall be pursued and we will continue to build the capacity of SMEs and Corporations in the areas of internal control processes and systems to ensure proper bookkeeping and regulatory compliance,” he revealed.

He said to curb the increasing incidences of money laundering, terrorist financing and cybercrimes, the Society will start special professional development programmes in the Fourth Quarter of 2020 and will henceforth continue with technology-enabled online programs such as e-inductions, e-professional training and e-mandatory continuous professional development.

According to him, there is yearning across Africa to commit resources to raise young agile professionals that will tackle corruption and fraud.

He noted that the knowledge gap is huge and the complexities of the financial system are becoming more sophisticated because of artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, blockchain among others.

“These are all emerging technologies that are impacting on the practice of accounting profession itself and forensic accountants will have to be on the cutting edge of knowledge acquisition to cope with the pace that is required to the changing needs of the business environment, needs of the regulatory and compliance frameworks of corporates and even government.”

He said the reason there is so much corruption is that the institutions themselves are weak, the processes are not strengthened and instead of building strong institutions, we focus on strong men and “therefore, internal control and internal processes are weak impeding the growth of the institutions. Until we build strong institutions, corruption and fraud would continue to hunt African countries.”