Fraudulent Activities and Forensic Accounting Services of Banks in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

The increasing rate of frauds and financial malpractices in the Nigerian banking industry in recent times have made financial institutions to develop means of facing these challenges with the use of forensic accounting services. Forensic accounting is the use of accounting, auditing and investigative skills to determine whether fraud has occurred in any organization. The study examines the effect of forensic accounting services on fraud detection in Nigerian banks. To achieve this objective, data was collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected with the help of a well structured questionnaire of three sections administered to twenty four banks in Port Harcourt the capital of Rivers State and the data collected from the questionnaires were analysed with descriptive statistics, Augmented Dickey-fuller, ordinary least square and Granger Causality. The result reveals that the application of forensic accounting services affects the level of fraudulent activities of banks. On the basis of this finding, the paper concludes that forensic accounting services provide banks with the necessary tools to deter fraudulent activities. Therefore, the study suggests among others that banks should invest on human capital development of their personnel, government and regulatory authorities should ensure the provision of standards and guidelines to regulate forensic activities and above all Nigerians should embrace integrity, objectivity, fairness and accountability in their day-to-day activities.