Forensic Accounting and Economic Development in Nigeria
Babajide Oloyode Akinyemi *
University of Port Harcourt Business School, Nigeria.
Emeka J. Okereke
University of Port Harcourt Business School, Nigeria.
Ibanichuka Emmanuel
Department of Accounting, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The need to upend the abysmal level of economic development in Nigeria and reverse the ugly indices of economic development has been of great interest to the government of Nigeria. In the descriptive nature of our study, we explored the role of forensic accounting in promoting economic development in Nigeria. The population of our research includes accountants and senior staff of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). A sample size of 360 was estimated using the Yamane formula, but 349 copies of questionnaire were usable. In this study, we used frequencies and percentages in our descriptive analysis and our proposed hypotheses were tested using the Pearson correlation method. From our analysis, we observed forensic accounting as an important factor in promoting economic development. Forensic accounting in the three dimensions used facilitate employment generation and standard of living, while there is reduction in poverty on account of adopting forensic accounting. These impressive discoveries led us to recommend that, government should regulate the activities of the forensic accounting profession to ensure members conduct themselves properly, enhance competency and standard and ensure members of the public are protected from being misled.
Keywords: Forensic accounting, economic development, employment generation, standard of living