EFFECTIVE DEPLOY OF DIGITAL FORENSIC TECHNIQUES AND THE SUSTENANCE OF MATERIAL MISSTATEMENT-FREE FINANCIAL REPORTING IN NIGERIA
EFFECTIVE DEPLOY OF DIGITAL FORENSIC TECHNIQUES AND THE SUSTENANCE OF MATERIAL MISSTATEMENT-FREE FINANCIAL REPORTING IN NIGERIA

Summary/Abstract: Amid stiff competition currently playing out at the international capital market in response to unfolding oil price crash at the international oil market, high technological advancement and possible global economic recession with far reaching consequences on businesses, the quality of financial reporting across the globe despite due compliance with disclosure guidelines of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in many reporting jurisdictions across the globe may once again witness undue exposures to the rough handles of management executives of corporate organizations. In bid to proactively forestall feared speculations among terrified Investors whose value of investment dwindles on daily basis, there is urgent need for professional Accountants such as Internal Auditors and Forensic Accountants to upgrade digitally on their existing forensic accounting skills so as to be able to ease effectively, the increasing tension in the corporate financial reporting environment. To this end, the study intends to determine whether the application of forensic digital techniques effectively predicts tendencies of material misstatement in pre and post IFRS financial regimes in Nigeria. Being a secondary data wholly sourced research, a total of 50 manufacturing companies in Nigeria were purposively sampled with pre and post IFRS annual reports for the years 2006 – 2016 assessed using digital forensic technique such as Probit Model e-enabled spreadsheet. Relevant hypotheses were tested using Multiple Regression Analytical tool and the Mann Whitney U test. Result of the analyses showed that appropriate application of digital forensic technique deployed effectively predicts tendencies of material misstatement in the pre and post IFRS Financial Statements of selected manufacturing companies sampled in Nigeria. This sensitive observation readily indicates that the attainment of material misstatement free financial reporting atmosphere in any corporate environment goes beyond entities sound compliance to prevailing regulatory disclosure guidelines. It was recommended that timely appropriate steps be taken for the establishment of solid digital infrastructures in developing countries like Nigeria towards ensuring that the promotion of transparency and faithful representation of disclosed financial information are not grossly undermined in the near future.

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