The importance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in many economies cannot be over emphasized as they play vital roles in the economy of both developed and developing countries such as employment generation and poverty reduction among others. However, majority of SMEs have failed to recognize the importance of well-structured accounting system that would have enabled them keep accurate financial statement. The study set out to analyse the extent to which accounting information is being used to measure the financial performance of SMEs. Questionnaires were administered to 200 SMEs owners out of which 197 questionnaire were valid and analysed using Likert scale. It was observed that while respondents agree that major benefits of keeping proper records is to know the performance of the business and that record keeping is key to the success of the business, majority of the SMEs owners lack basic accounting knowledge and decry the cost involved in preparing financial statement hence they keep the records themselves manually. The study recommends that SMEs operators should endeavour to keep proper records and where necessary seek the services of SME professionals to do so at minimal cost because the cost involved in business failure as a result of lack of proper record keeping far outweigh the cost of good record keeping for a business concern.

Fraud is a debilitating factor that affects business growth and a major problem for many organizations especially SMEs since they have smaller resources to both prevent and recover from a fraud. SMEs have fewer anti-fraud controls hence they are more vulnerable to fraud. In a bid to reduce fraud and manage the risks proactively, SMEs needs to identify factors leading to fraudulent behavior. The paper seeks to evaluate fraud management among SMEs. Data was collected from two hundred (200) SME owners using questionnaire, however only 197 questionnaires were viable. The questionnaire was formulated using a five-point Likert scale. It was observed that the major causes of fraud are the weakling of societal values and financial pressure while changes in lifestyles indicate that fraud is being perpetuated. The study concluded that for effective fraud management, SMEs should implement fraud prevention measures such as strengthening societal values (integrity) building strong internal control measures to block the loopholes within the system, training programmes for SMEs operators and stringent disciplinary actions against erring officers.

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