The impact of basic forensic accounting skills on financial reporting credibility among listed firms in Nigeria

The paper aims at evaluating the impact of basic forensic accounting skills viz: communication skills, technical & analytical skills, accounting & auditing skills and psycho-social skills on the financial reporting credibility of listed organisations in Nigeria. The scope of the study is composed of firms quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as at January, 2018 while the study population is the users and auditors of the financial reports produced by these entities. The users of financial reports are represented by investment advisers which a segment of capital market operators while the auditors are represented by the Big 4 Audit Firms operating in Nigeria as at January, 2018. The research design employed is the survey approach by which primary data was collected from the sample respondents described above while the multivariate analysis was conducted to highlight the impact of the selected independent variables on financial reporting. It was found that, with the exception of communication skills which exhibited a negative but significant impact, all the other basic forensic accounting skills exert positive and significant impact on the methods by which an organization reports her financials. It is prescribed that aspiring forensic accountants should be adequately trained to be able to practice the profession satisfactorily.