Corporate fraud at the Small Enterprise Finance Agency affects economic growth in South Africa

Corporate fraud can be very harmful to any organisation because it may lead to companies collapsing and cause economic downfall in a country. One of the factors that has a negative impact on a country’s economy is unemployment. Joblessness can also be a crime generator. The South African government noted this challenge and developed the National Development Plan (NDP) of 2030. This plan articulates the aims in reaching the goal for driving economic growth through various means, including sustainable job creation. As a result, this plan gives a summary of the programmes that were created to encourage, support, and develop entrepreneurship and Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to create jobs and limit the increase of unemployment through the establishment of State-Owned Companies such as the Small Enterprise Financial Agency (SEFA) to help create sustainable employment by the year 2030; and improve the economic growth in South Africa. The SEFA is meant to bring inclusive participation in the economic prosperity through developmental credit to the previously disadvantaged across South Africa. This paper intends to prove that corporate fraud does exist at the SEFA and affect the country’s economic growth. Moreover, it provides a framework to curb corporate fraud which can stimulate an ailing economy.