Title: Whistleblowing framework and financial statement fraud: empirical evidence

Authors: Olayinka Erin; Oluwafunmilayo Ajibola; Olajide Dahunsi

Addresses: Department of Auditing, College of Accounting Sciences, University of South Africa, South Africa ' Department of Accounting, Anchor University, Lagos, Nigeria ' Department of Accounting and Finance, Arden University, UK

Abstract: Whistleblowing activities have increased globally due to corporate fraud in recent times. The study examined the impact of whistleblowing framework on financial statement fraud of listed firms in Nigeria. We adopted the following to measure whistleblowing framework: size of audit committee, independence of audit committee, risk committee independence, size of external audit, international ownership and firm size. In the same vein, financial statement fraud was measured through Beneish M-score model, taking into consideration the eight parameters of the model. We analysed the data using weighted exogenous sample maximum likelihood (WESML), content analysis and fixed effect regression model. The findings reveal that most Nigerian listed firms have increased the pace toward transparent disclosure of whistleblowing practices which has significant effect on financial statement fraud. These empirical findings place a new direction for inclusive corporate disclosure of whistleblowing in Nigeria, and also for best practices in emerging economies.

Keywords: Beneish M-score; financial statement fraud; legitimacy theory; Nigerian listed firms; whistleblowing framework; whistleblowing index; WBI.

DOI: 10.1504/AAJFA.2026.150615

Afro-Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, 2026 Vol.16 No.1, pp.54 - 79

Accepted: 09 Apr 2024
Published online: 18 Dec 2025 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article