Nigeria: Bank Fraud

In recent years, the volume and frequency of fraudulent practices in Nigerian banks have been on the increase. According to the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the level of reported fraud in Nigerian banks rose from N804m in 1990 to N3,199m in 1998. Furthermore, the proportion of actual/expected loss to the amount involved in fraud rose from 3 per cent in 1990 to 22 per cent in 1998. Perhaps the highest fraud ever reported in any particular year by a Nigerian bank occurred in 1998 when United Bank for Africa plc wrote off N786m on account of fraud. The growing scope and scale of fraud in the Nigerian banking industry is not surprising, given the rising profile of the country as a corrupt and fraudulent nation. For instance, a recent survey by Transparency International, a German‐based international organisation that interviewed business people worldwide, listed Nigeria as the second most corrupt country in the world. The country also has a poor reputation concerning drug trafficking. It has, for instance, been asserted that: