As a way of curtailing fraudulent acts in the country during the period of the coronavirus crisis, the Association of Forensic Accounting Researchers, AFAR, has offered free e-training to over 750 professionals to keep them abreast of trends in fraud practices.
The training is worth N385,000 for each participant which also included training materials that were made available at the end of the exercise.
A lot of fraudulent activities have been reported this period, many of which were carried out on the internet. The association noted that the training was important to familiarise professionals with the latest fraud tactics in order to keep the exploitative act at the barest minimum and strengthen the security of Nigerians.
Speaking further on the rationale behind the exercise, President of AFAR, Prof. Godwin Oyedokun, stated that it was intended to actively engage Nigerians both professionals and students during lockdown as well as to give back to the society.
“Most importantly, the training also aimed to ensure compliance to government sit -at- home order to keep people safe, reduce domestic violence, develop professional minds, prevent brain drain and also teach new skills in the field.”
Speaking on how the training held, Oyedokun said, “We were able to achieve this by creating e-learning platforms and special purpose social media to reinforce and stimulate teaching and learning experience.
“We taught for a minimum of 2 hours per day for five weeks of the lockdown, giving assignments that will further engage participants for at least 1 hour per day with weekly class projects and community services. Class participation was graded and in all, participants with cumulative pass grade of 75% were certified.”
Chairman of AFAR Governing council, Prof. Muhammad Mainoma, also reiterated the commitment of the association to preventing detecting and detering fraudulent practices across all sectors.
He added that AFAR existed to promote education and certifications in various areas of forensics research and practices.
