Nigeria loses N2.5t to fraud, forensic body says

From Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

The Society for Forensic Accountants and Fraud Prevention (SFAFP) has said N2.5 trillion is lost yearly in the national budget to public sector fraud and corruption.

Speaking at a virtual induction of 192 associates at the weekend, SFAFP Chairman Iliyasu Gashinbaki said the continent was losing about 25 per cent of annual budgets to these notorious schemes.

Gashinbaki promised that the society would assist in plugging the leakages.

SFAFP listed 10 most common schemes by which public officers bled the country as unlawful use of public assets for private advances; underpayment of taxes and duties on export as well as import.

Others, it said, were fraud and embezzlement; payment of salary to ghost workers; bribery and extortion; payment for air supply (goods or services not provided or rendered); over and under-invoicing; fraudulent court awards of financial compensations above damage suffered.

The society, he said, would provide technical support for the public and private sectors.

He said the leakage was not peculiar to Nigeria, as it affects other African countries.

“Recent studies have shown that most African governments struggle with the huge debt burden, in addition to huge loss of revenue due to fraud and corruption consistently draining its little resources.