Fraud in Nigerian banks rise in 5 years

Pro-tem President, Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors of Nigeria (CIFIAN), Dr. Victoria Enape, has said that fraud volume in Nigerian banks increased dramatically to about N25 billion in the past five years.

Enape said this in Abuja on Friday at the opening of intensive training for forensic and investigative auditors with the theme “The Use of Forensic and Investigative Auditing for Prevention of Fraud, Corruption and Cyber-crimes in Nigeria”.

She noted that the training had become necessary going by the global acknowledgment of corruption in most government and financial institution and its (corruption) rejection by the United Nation (UN), World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Government at all levels are losing billions of Naira every day and most of these criminal cases bordering on fraud, corruption and cyber-crimes are partly because there are no forensic and investigative auditors in Nigeria to prevent fraud from taking place.

“The place of training of forensic and investigative auditors cannot be overemphasized because the whole world has embraced this current trend years ago which has assisted them in the fight against fraud.

“Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors is an anti-fraud organisation, saddled with the responsibility of providing skills to relevant professionals on the use of science and technology to prevent, detect and investigate fraud of all kinds.

“The Institute also has mechanism to block illicit financial flows in the country; it therefore becomes indispensable in Nigeria if Nigerians and the future generation must experience peace and economic development,” Enape said.

According to her, scandalous collapses, financial loses, loss of employment, investment and investors, loss of earnings and means of livelihood are some of the consequential social dislocations and risks of corruption and fraud.

She explained that fraud and corruption weakened the institutional capacity of governments and organisations as well as impedes trade and investment.

The CIFIAN boss, therefore, reiterated the urgent need for the passage of the Institute’s Bill by the House of Representatives to give concurrency after Senate passed the Bill on July 5, 2018.

The Registrar of the Institute, Mr. Valentine Ugwu, said the Bill, when passed would also assist government during elections.

“Forensic auditing can also be used to tackle and prevent electoral fraud. And President Buhari is the only Nigerian leader that has openly tackled corrupt persons since the existence of the country.

“We intend to help President Buhari in the fight against corruption by validating and enhancing members’ standing as forensic and investigative auditors with a credible, comprehensive and internationally recognised certification,” Ugwu said.