Wema Bank Financial Statement Marred By Fraud and Forgeries

Wema Bank is Nigeria foremost indegenous bank established on May 2, 1945, as a private limited liability company. T he Bank converted to a public limited liability company in 1987 and was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1990. The Bank has gone through various strategic repositioning that gave birth to it being a national bank in 2015.

However, incidents of fraud and forgeries are major concerns in the 2019 financial reports of the Bank even though the bank made a profit of 5.2 billion Naira after taxation.

Wema Bank Plc, recorded 1,056 cases of fraud and forgeries in 2019 financial statement. Out of these, a cumulative figure of ₦593.99 million was recorded for fraud and forgeries and this contrasted with 545,918 million Naira recorded in 2018.

However, only the sum of ₦ 168.77 million and $3,100 was recorded in the year 2019. These frauds and forgeries resulted, for the bank, in the actual loss of 96.53 million Naira and $3,100 respectively.

Wema Bank reported that its staff members were involved in only 14 of the 1,055 cases. However, the bank did not include the actual amount and the percentage these 14 cases had in the total loss to the bank.