DAARU SALAAM UNIVERSITY

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development

Why It Is Necessary to Teach Financial Crime in the University

A Position Paper

Prof. Paul Allieu Kamara

Professor of Leadership and Organizational Development

Vice Chancellor for Research and Development

Daaru Salaam University, Mogadishu, Somalia

September 2026

Summary Financial crime drains public resources, weakens institutions and falls hardest on the poor. Yet few universities in Africa treat it as a subject of serious study. This paper argues that universities have a duty to teach financial crime: to build ethical leaders, to equip professionals to prevent and detect wrongdoing, to generate context-specific research, and to strengthen the integrity of the societies they serve. It sets out the case, proposes a core curriculum, and offers recommendations for institutional action.

1. Introduction

Every society depends on the honest management of money. When public funds are stolen, when contracts are awarded through bribery, when criminal proceeds are hidden in the formal financial system, the damage reaches far beyond the balance sheet. Schools go unbuilt, clinics run short of medicine, and public trust in institutions erodes. In the language of my forthcoming book, The Danger of Power, Money and Greed: The Effects on the Poor in Africa, financial crime is not merely a legal problem; it is a leadership problem, a moral problem and a development problem.

Universities are the places where societies prepare their future bankers, accountants, lawyers, engineers, administrators, public servants, and political leaders. It follows that what universities choose to teach, or choose to ignore, shapes how those future leaders will behave when they are handed authority over public and private resources. This paper argues that teaching financial crime is not an optional specialisation. It is a necessary part of a responsible university education.

2. The Scale and Human Cost of Financial Crime

Financial crime is a broad category. It includes fraud, bribery and corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, cyber-enabled theft, and the illicit movement of capital across borders. Its consequences are measurable and widely documented.

Lost development capital. The High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa (the Mbeki Panel, 2015) estimated that the continent loses in the order of US$50 billion each year through illicit outflows, an amount comparable to or exceeding the official development assistance Africa receives.
Losses inside organisations. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), in its Report to the Nations, has consistently found that a typical organisation loses roughly five percent of its revenue to fraud, and that most schemes are detected through tips rather than audits.
Damaged trust. Where corruption is perceived to be widespread, citizens are less willing to pay taxes, report crime or invest, and states find it harder to raise the revenue needed for basic services. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has repeatedly placed Somalia among the lowest-scoring countries in the world.
Concentrated harm on the poor. The wealthy can buy private schools, private clinics and private security. The poor depend entirely on public systems, so when those systems are looted, the poor bear the loss first and most severely.

Note: Figures are cited in general terms from the sources named above. Please verify against the latest editions before formal publication.

3. Why Universities Must Take Responsibility

3.1 Universities shape the character of future leaders

Financial crime is rarely committed by strangers. It is most often committed by people who hold positions of trust, and who rationalise wrongdoing through pressure, opportunity and a belief that they will not be caught. This is the logic of the well-known fraud triangle. An education that teaches technical skills without ethical formation leaves graduates unprepared for the moments when integrity is tested. Teaching financial crime openly, with real cases, confronts students with these moments before they meet them in practice.

3.2 The skills gap is real

Banks, ministries, revenue authorities, auditors, courts, non-governmental organisations, and international donors all need people who understand how financial crime works and how to stop it. Compliance, internal audit, forensic accounting and anti-money-laundering roles are growing. Where universities do not train for them, institutions either go without or import expertise at high cost, and local knowledge is lost.

3.3 Prevention is cheaper than cure

Investigation and asset recovery are slow, expensive and uncertain. Prevention, through sound controls, transparent procedures and a culture of accountability, is far more effective. Prevention depends on people who recognise red flags early and who have the confidence to speak up. Those habits are best learned in the classroom, where mistakes carry no consequences.

3.4 Africa needs its own research and its own case studies

Most textbooks on financial crime draw on European and North American experience. African realities differ: informal economies, cash-based trade, mobile money, weak registries, fragile post-conflict institutions and strong kinship obligations all shape how crime occurs and how it can be countered. Universities in Africa are best placed to produce research that reflects these conditions and to train students who can apply international standards intelligently to local settings.

3.5 Universities are institutions with their own integrity obligations

Universities manage public money, research grants, procurement and admissions. They are themselves exposed to fraud, conflicts of interest, and academic and financial misconduct. An institution that teaches financial integrity while practising it, through transparent governance and clear reporting channels, gives its teaching credibility.

4. The Link Between Leadership, Power and Financial Crime

My own work in leadership and organizational development leads me to a central conclusion: financial crime is best understood as a failure of leadership before it is a failure of law. Unchecked power, combined with access to money and a culture of impunity, creates the conditions in which greed thrives. Laws and regulations matter, but they are only as strong as the people who apply them.

For this reason, teaching financial crime should not sit only within law or accounting. It belongs in leadership, public administration, business, economics, development studies, information technology and the social sciences. Every graduate who will one day hold authority should understand how power can be abused, and how leaders can build systems that resist abuse.

5. Proposed Core Curriculum

The following six modules offer a flexible framework that can be delivered as a stand-alone certificate, a postgraduate programme, or as elements integrated across existing degrees.

No.	Module	Content
1	Foundations of Financial Crime	Fraud, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and illicit financial flows: definitions, typologies and legal frameworks.
2	Corruption, Power and Governance	How concentrated power and weak institutions enable grand and petty corruption; state capture; effects on service delivery and the poor.
3	Ethical Leadership and Integrity Systems	Values-based leadership, codes of conduct, whistleblower protection, conflict-of-interest management and accountability culture.
4	Prevention, Detection and Investigation	Internal controls, risk assessment, forensic accounting basics, red-flag analysis, evidence handling and reporting.
5	Digital Finance and Emerging Threats	Mobile money, cryptoassets, cyber-enabled fraud, identity theft and the use of data analytics and AI in detection.
6	Regulation, Compliance and Asset Recovery	AML/CFT standards, international cooperation, beneficial ownership transparency and the return of stolen assets.

Teaching approach

Case-based learning using real African and global cases, with lessons on how each was detected and prosecuted.
Practical exercises in red-flag analysis, basic forensic accounting and investigative reporting.
Guest sessions with regulators, auditors, prosecutors, financial intelligence officers and civil society practitioners.
Ethics dilemmas and simulations that require students to make difficult decisions under pressure.
A capstone research project addressing a real integrity challenge in a local institution.

6. Anticipated Objections

“Teaching financial crime teaches people how to commit it.”

This concern is understandable but mistaken. Criminals do not need a university to learn their methods. What they lack, and what societies need, are honest professionals who understand those methods well enough to block them. Medical schools teach disease, not to spread it, and security studies examine threats in order to defend against them. The same principle applies here.

“The curriculum is already full.”

Financial integrity does not require an entirely new department. It can be woven into existing courses in accounting, law, public administration, business ethics and leadership, and expanded later through short courses and specialised postgraduate study.

“The subject is too sensitive.”

Silence protects wrongdoers, not the public. A university that avoids the subject because it is uncomfortable leaves its graduates unprepared, and sends a signal that the problem is not to be discussed.

7. Benefits for Students, Institutions and Society

Students	Employable, in-demand skills; ethical confidence; readiness for careers in audit, compliance, investigation, public service and leadership.
Universities	Stronger reputation; new research areas and funding opportunities; partnerships with regulators, banks, donors and international bodies; a healthier internal integrity culture.
Government and industry	A pipeline of trained professionals; improved compliance with international standards; reduced losses from fraud and corruption.
Society and the poor	More resources reaching schools, health services and infrastructure; greater public trust; a culture in which integrity is expected and rewarded.

8. Recommendations

Establish a core financial crime and integrity curriculum across relevant faculties, beginning with a pilot certificate programme.
Create a research centre or unit dedicated to financial crime, corruption and illicit financial flows in the Horn of Africa and the wider continent.
Train and recruit faculty with expertise in forensic accounting, anti-money-laundering, ethics and leadership, and invite practitioners as visiting lecturers.
Build partnerships with central banks, financial intelligence units, anti-corruption bodies, professional associations and international universities.
Model the standard within the university: adopt transparent procurement, conflict-of-interest declarations, a protected whistleblowing channel and regular public reporting.
Publish African case studies and teaching materials so that other institutions can adapt and use them.

9. Conclusion

The fight against financial crime will not be won by laws and enforcement alone. It will be won by people: leaders who resist temptation, professionals who recognise wrongdoing, and citizens who demand accountability. Universities are where those people are formed. To leave financial crime out of the curriculum is to leave a critical part of leadership education unfinished.

Teaching financial crime is therefore necessary, not because crime is inevitable, but because integrity can be taught, practised and strengthened. If Africa’s universities accept this responsibility, they will help ensure that power serves the people, that money builds rather than destroys, and that the poor are protected rather than exploited.