Paper Title
Impact of Fraud on Ghanaian Smes and Coping Mechanisms

Abstract
Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises’ (SMEs) are the engine of growth of most developing countries as they employ a large number of people as opposed to large firms. Consequently, these enterprises should succeed in expanding to become significant employers and producers. However, what seems obvious at least through cursory observation is that the current state of SMEs betrays an economic loss with respect to the benefits that ought to be forthcoming from their potential. This loss can be triggered by a number of factors. The study determines the drivers of internal fraud and their impact on Ghanaian SMEs, and prescribes coping mechanisms. Primary data collected on 250 SME’s collected from various sectors across Accra, the capital of Ghana are used for this study. Using a cross-sectional regression, we identify the key drivers of internal fraud that hamper the growth of Ghanaian SMEs. Our regression results show that although several fraud variables impact negatively the growth of the SME sector, it is only accounting fraud which is significant. Our study also revealed that stealing, fake currency issued for the payment of goods or service and non-payment of goods or service accounts for almost 83% of fraud cases experienced by SMEs.Our study should be useful to managers of SMEs, auditors and the security agenciesin developing economies in particular, in their quest to combat fraud within SMEs. Key words- and phrases: Accounting fraud, fraud diamond,internal fraud, regression, small and medium enterprises’, stratified sampling.