Fighting Economic and Financial Crimes in Nigeria Using Forensic Accounting: The Moderating Effect of Technology

Increase in technology has been helping all sectors of the economy in Nigeria. Yet, there is no gainsaying the fact that technology has both the positive and the negative sides of it. While economic and financial crimes perpetrators manipulate the negative part, forensic accounting uses it as a tool to unearth perpetrators. Crimes classified as economic and financial remain major problem facing the Nigeria's economy and the citizenries and many believe that forensic accounting is the only panacea in Nigeria. We used the survey method for the purpose of this study. Four hypotheses (null hypotheses) were tested using the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (PPMC) statistical tool. We find that forensic accounting has a significant but negative relationship with economic and financial crimes; technology has significant and positive relationship with both forensic accounting and economic and financial crimes; and that technology moderates the relationship that exists between forensic accounting and economic and financial crimes. We then made some recommendations such as mandatory forensic accounting department ought be established in publicly and privately owned institutions and offices through regulatory authorities and not on voluntary basis; recruit forensic accountants/investigators/auditors in both the private and public sectors and regularly train and retrain them on current technologies; the Nigerian government should amend existing laws to meet the requirements of present day technological advancement. We then concluded that forensic accounting as afield has all it takes to fight economic and financial crimes in Nigeria and that technology moderates the relationship, though negative, between forensic accounting and economic and financial crimes hence the need for technological advancement in forensic accounting in order to fight against economic and financial crimes.