CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
With an award match to becoming an industrialized nation, Nigeria is witnessing true emergence of human resources as professional, which made possible the establishment of service industries and other business organizations. This belief was rather so strong that the urge to provide financial services can no longer be overlooked. to accelerate economic growth and economic development both government and some organized private groups were issued licenses to operate banks, in addition to a few banks that were already into business to operate systematic financial services.
These banks employed young men and women, but like every aspect of human endeavour have their challenges facing the banking industry and indeed all industries is the incidence of fraud. Bakere (2012) observed that the incidence of frauds in the Banking Industry has in the recent. Past posed a very serious threat to the very existence of financial institutions and is a matter of serious concern to the regulatory authorities and the Banking public.
Despite the stringent measures put in place by monetary authorities and internal control measures to check the activies of fraudsters, frauds in the banks to be on the increase. Edozie as observed by Adebayo (2011) stated that available statistics reveal that thirdly-one banks reported that they experienced frauds and forgery cases for the period (January –March 2002). Banks are institutions known to operate on the centre –pin of public confidence. today that concept no longer holds as bankers themselves either initiate frauds or partakes deeply in fraudulent activities against their banks (employers).
According to Nigerian Dposit Insurance /corporation (NDIC) Annual Reports (2015), most of those banks were run around by a few greedy directors and officials who perpetrated frauds and all kinds of unethical practices against their institutions. This is an aberration that continues to erode public confidence in banks. This scenario has singularly contributed to the liquidation of many banks. Agbata (2014) observed that one cannot avoid considering the fact that the distress in the banking industry was occasioned by fraud. Now that cases of fraud have been established in the banks, the need therefore arise to find out problems associated with fraud, It’s impact on the macro-economy and how these problems are being tackled, hence the need for this study.
1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEMS
Generally speaking, movements in the economy of any nation result from the inter-play of money and other economic variables. In Nigeria, the impacts of money and other banking have been the dominant factors determining macro-economic performance. Despite this unique position of banks between other sectors of the economy, banks (especially commercial banks) are faced with a good number of economic crises. Notably among the cases is fraud. As a result there has been a lot of criticisms from the investing public about the non-commitment and dedication to duty by Nigerian bankers.
This stems from the fact that distress in the banking industry originated fraud, which was occasioned by bankers. Directors and management of banks are also criticized of their inability to direct and control men and materials effectively. Poor accounting or reconciliation procedures may give an employee the opportunity to spot a weakness and devise a plan to take advantage of it. This is due to the weakness of internal controls in a bank.