Africa needs solid education to fight fraud

When corruption thrives and dirty money is kept in offshore accounts, Africa’s high levels of poverty remain. How do we reverse the trend? The solution lies in reviving countries’ primary educational standards and increasing fraud awareness and education.

Fraud is costly in Africa. According to the ACFE’s 2018 Report to the Nations, median losses for sub-Saharan Africa organizations are $90,000. The study finds corruption (49 percent), and cash on hand (21 percent), as the leading types of fraud reported in sub-Saharan Africa cases. The study also finds that the largest percentage of sub-Saharan African frauds are committed by employees (48 percent) with a median loss of $55,000, then managers (36 percent) with a median loss of $73,000, followed by owners/executives (14 percent) with a median loss of nearly $2,716,000.