The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has advised organisations to invest more on measures that would guide on early fraud detection to mitigate loss on them.
The association gave the advice as part of measures to mitigate the effects of fraud, during its fifth annual Anti-Fraud Conference that held virtually recently.
Speaking on the theme: “Fighting Crimes in Digital Economy: Fraud Examiners Tool Kits” , a fraud expert and non-Executive Director of Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Prof. Suleiman Aruwa recognised that while fraud tendency cannot be completely prevented, a timely and targeted response is instrumental to cushioning extreme effect.
He averred that fraud, which is a global reality, has become more evident with COVID-19 pandemic and advancement in technology.
He explained that the policies and procedures currently adopted by organisations to report incidence were not sufficient to address latest fraud techniques.
Rather, he urged businesses to up their game by being proactive to be able to prevent, detect and mitigate occurrences.
On his part, President of ACFE, Lagos State Chapter, Prof. Godwin Oyedokun expressed worries on the growing number of fraud cases in organisations globally, adding that Nigeria especially has suffered economic and image setback as a result.
Quoting report, Oyedokun revealed that Nigeria lost over N5 billion to fraud alone in 2020 and about the most affected globally in Q3 2020.
He said, “The challenge of fraud is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, but in Q3 2020, Nigeria appeared to be the worst hit by a wide margin according to the industry fraud report released by The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
“The report further disclosed that Nigerian financial services companies lost about N5.2 billion to fraud between January and September 2020.”
He explained that the conference was important to keep fraud examiners abreast of trends, and equip them with latest knowledge and tools useful in their endeavours to prevent and curb fraud cases.
