Nigerian public officials received N675bn bribe in 2019 –Report

A new survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has revealed that an estimated N675billion was paid in cash bribes to Nigerian public officials this year.

According to the report, which was released on Friday, at least 30.2 percent, out of all Nigerians who had at least one contact with a public official in the 12 months prior to the 2019 survey, paid a bribe to, or were asked to pay a bribe by, a public official.

The report said: “This means that, although still relatively high, the prevalence of bribery in Nigeria has undergone a moderate, yet statistically significant, decrease since 2016, when it stood at 32.3 percent.”

Cash, it stated, continues to be the dominant type of bribe.

Read also: Aba reacts to Orji Kalu’s sentence

“More than 93 percent of all bribes paid in 2019 was paid in cash, a slightly larger share than in 2016.

According to the 2019 survey, the average cash bribe paid is N5,754, a sum equivalent to roughly $52 in purchasing power parity.

“Overall, it is estimated that a total of roughly N675billion was paid in cash bribes to public officials in Nigeria in 2019, corresponding to 0.52 percent of the entire Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria,” it added.

According to the report, the economic cost of bribery becomes even more palpable when considering that, on average, bribe-payers pay an amount equivalent to six percent of the average annual income of Nigerians.

It said differently from actual trends of bribery experience, more than half of Nigerians believed that corruption increased in the two years prior to the 2019 survey.

The report said the analysis of the list of the most pressing problems afflicting the country, as reported by Nigerians in 2019, showed that corruption has moved from 3rd to 5th position, as there had been a sharp increase in the level of public concern about security and health issues.

“Around nine percent of Nigerians considered corruption to be the most important problem facing their country, a significant decrease from the 14 percent recorded in the 2016 survey,” the report concluded.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now