Arusha is set to host the second Africa forensic conference to be held from May 24 to 26 this year with a special focus on efforts being made to curb the problem in the East African region.

Organisers of the forum have said that the meeting would address cyber-related crimes by providing forensic accounting skills to corporate officials, anti-corruption watchdogs, police auditors, accountants and high-ranked officials.

Briefing reporters here on Saturday, International Coordinator and Representative for Africa of the Forensic Certified Public Accountants Sosthenes Bichanga said the forum would be convened in response to increasing on-line crimes in the continent.

He said that in recent years, Africa experienced unprecedented growth of science and technology; as a result unscrupulous people apply new technology in stealing money from public or private institutions.

He explained that cases of fraud and cyber-crime had been costing East African countries billions of dollars, but the rackets remain shrouded in secrecy because the affected companies prefer to suffer in silence, 'safeguarding' their reputations.

“With improving security measures, racketeers no longer use weapons or other physical means to conduct their transgressions. The trend now is shifting from this form of tangible crime to brain-driven or virtual ones,” he said.

According to the expert, Nigeria is a leading country for initiating cyber-crime schemes that had been causing huge monetary losses from local companies, corporate institutions, banks and individuals in especially the East African region.

“Our recent research estimates that over 6 per cent of the total annual income and revenue collection by an organisation which does not take the fight against fraud, cyber-crime or corruption is lost. Some of these institutions make billions of money,” he said, adding that the combined loss suffered by the East African member states may add up to 30 per cent of their total losses which spells economic disaster for the region.

The related virtual crimes include online schemes as carried out mostly by Nigerians, dubious accounting computer and internet anchored cyber-crime through automatic teller machines (ATM).

Bichanga further disclosed that in Kenya alone it has been discovered that a single bank would lose Ksh 25 million (about 350 million/-) per year, just through ATM fraudsters.

The expert added that a similar case applies to other financial institutions around East Africa, but they all keep mum trying to safeguard their reputations.

“Every day there seems to be another major headline about fraudulent schemes, scandals, corruption schemes, civil litigation, disputes in divorce and corporate turmoil. As a result, there’s never been a bigger demand for forensic accounting skills,” said James Anyoka, coordinator of the forthcoming forum.

He said the conference is designed to prepare delegates with cutting-edge training and networking resources to effectively handle cyber crimes.