Fraud down in Africa says KPMG

It said the value of cases fell from US$3.3bn to US$2bn although Nigeria‚ Kenya‚ Zimbabwe and South Africa accounted for 74% of all fraud cases reported on the continent.

"While fewer cases are reported in South Africa‚ the overall value of these cases is far greater than in Nigeria‚" said KPMG.

The Africa fraud barometer was developed to provide a picture of fraud on the continent.

"This is the second barometer we are publishing and we have noticed a decline both in terms of reported fraud cases and their monetary value. We see this as a positive trend‚" said Petrus Marais‚ KPMG's global leader of forensics‚ who developed the barometer.

"There is increasing interest in Africa as an investment destination but the continent struggles with a negative image. We are providing foreign investors with an analysis of fraud profiles on individual African countries because a generic approach to assessing fraud risks on the continent is not possible. The overriding point is that investors need to assess the prevailing environment in each country," Marais said.

The barometer details the number of reported fraud cases‚ type of perpetrators‚ victims of fraud‚ type of fraud‚ countries and targeted industries. Data currently available captures the entire year of 2011 and the first half of 2012.

To obtain some indication of trends‚ findings from the first six months of 2012 were compared with those of the second half of 2011.