Corruption persists in Nigeria as public officials receive N721bn in bribes-Report

Business a.m.

A recent anti-corruption survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)  has revealed that bribery continues to be rampant in Nigeria, as Nigerian public officials were found to have received nothing less than N721bn as bribes in 2023.

According to the data published on the NBS website, about 27 percent of all Nigerian citizens who had dealings with a public official in the year prior to the survey in 2023 reported having paid a bribe to the official.

The figure, indicative of a persistent culture of corruption, has eroded the trust of Nigerian citizens in the government’s ability to combat bribery and other forms of graft. The study,funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), also observed a downward trend in confidence in the government’s anti-corruption measures across regions, reflecting a deepening mistrust in the country’s institutions.

The report titled, “2023 Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends”, found that in 2019, over half of all citizens surveyed believed that the government was effective in combating corruption. However, the latest data from 2023 shows that this number has fallen to just under a third, a drop that highlights the growing distrust of the government’s ability to tackle bribery and graft in the country.

The report stated, “The prevalence of bribe payments to private sector actors (such as doctors in private hospitals and employees of private companies) increased significantly, from 6 per cent of citizens who had at least one contact with a private sector actor in 2019 to 14 per cent in 2023. 

“The increase in private sector bribery between 2019 and 2023 was observed across all regions and all types of private employees. Despite this increase, the prevalence of bribery in the public sector remains approximately twice as high as in the private sector. 

“Furthermore, the contact rate of citizens with the public sector is also about twice (56 per cent) as high as the contact with private sector actors (28 per cent).”

A closer analysis of the data further  highlighted that the average cash bribe paid to public officials in Nigeria in 2023 was NGN8,284. While this figure is higher than the average bribe in 2019 (NGN5,754), the value of the bribe in real terms has actually decreased by 29 percent, as inflationary pressures have eroded the purchasing power of the bribe.

“In 2023, bribes paid in a public official’s office and in the street accounted for around 35 and 36 per cent of all paid briberies, respectively. 11 per cent of bribes were paid in the respondents’ own home, while 7 per cent were paid in public buildings such as restaurants, malls, or stations,” the report stated.