Risk Assessment: A Fight against Fraud in Nigerian Organizations

With the resent reforms in corporate governance requirement, risk assessment has become a prominent feature in organizational control and management. This study looks at the risk assessment practices of some selected firms in Nigeria to determine the presence and therefore the impact of this practice. The population comprised of firms listed on the stock exchange that are audited by the big four audit firms (KPMG, E&Y, PWC & AWD) in Nigeria. Using judgment sampling, two senior management and four internal control staff were selected. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire with response options graduated into five Likert scales. The questionnaire captured responses from questions on risk assessment practices and fraud occurrence in the organizations. Logistic regression was used to test the hypothesis and the result showed a positive and significant relationship between risk assessment and fraud in Nigerian organizations. The study provides insight into the organizational practice with reference to risk assessment. From this study, Nigerian Organizations have not imbibed the prescriptions of the resent corporate governance codes. The study, therefore, recommends that sanctions should be put in place to enforce compliance to these corporate governance codes. and attention should be paid to the appointment of board members to ensure that a vibrant audit committee is constituted.