Internal Control System and Fraud Prevention of Quoted Financial Services Firms in Nigeria: A Smart PLS-SEM Approach

Abstract

Fraud prevention involves the integration of all efforts that may be used to reduce or limit the opportunities to commit fraud in an organization. It is tool for protecting the collapse of business activities and it is widely use in the corporate world to manage business challenges. The internal control system is use manage risk and to prevent fraud and errors in order to prevent business losses and liquidation of business. On this basis, the study seeks to examine the effect of internal control system on fraud prevention of financial services firms in Nigeria. The population is 284 respondents from the listed financial services firms in Nigeria. A cluster sampling technique was adopted for the study. The data was sources through the primary sources and a structure questionnaire were administered to the respondents through the use of five-point Liker scale system, and the SMART-PLS-3-SEM was used to analyze the fitness of the data and test the research hypothesis. A constructive reliability and validity, the discriminant validity measure and cross loadings were used to test the fitness of the model. Path coefficient, predictive relevance of exogenous. Findings from the study revealed that control environment and monitoring were found to have a positive and significant effect on fraud prevention, while the information and communication has a negative and significant effect on fraud prevention. Risk assessment show an insignificant positive effect on fraud prevention while control activities is negative and insignificant effect on fraud prevention of the listed financial services firms in Nigeria. In conclusion, the study found that internal control system has a significant influence on fraud prevention. It is recommended among others that the management of financial services firms should maintain the used in control environment, monitoring system because they play a greater in effect on fraud prevention. Also, regulator agency such as CBN, EFCC and ICPC should develop an internal control framework and policy that will guide the financial services firm in Nigeria.