Almost 95% of Nigerians either accept or pay bribes according to latest NBS survey which values sector at $4.6bn

ALMOST 95% of Nigerians will either accept or pay a bribe according stark revelations contained in the latest Nigerian Corruption Survey (NCS) just published by the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS).

Published yesterday, the survey showed that only 5.3% of Nigerians will either refuse to pay a bribe when asked to or refuse to accept when one is offered to them. In May 2016, the NBS announced that it was collaborating with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the European Union to conduct a survey on the quality and integrity of public services in Nigeria and the impact of corruption on daily life in Nigeria and has now published its first report on the matter.

According to the result of the survey, only 20 out of 100 people who were asked for bribes refused to comply. It also showed that 56% of Nigerians experience negative consequences after refusing to pay a requested bribe.

However, only 3.7% of those who were asked to pay bribes reported their experience to an official or the authorities. Interestingly, only 9.1% of those who reported to an official of authority faced negative consequence for reporting a bribery incident.

Also, the survey revealed that people mainly paid bribes to either speed up procedure, receive preferential treatment or to avoid the cancellation of public services. According to the NBS, the estimated value of bribe paid to public officials by Nigerians in a year is N400bn.

“Taking into account the fact that nine out of every 10 bribes paid to public officials in Nigeria are paid in cash and the size of the payments made, it is estimated that the total amount of bribes paid to public officials in Nigeria in the 12 months was around N400bn, the equivalent of $4.6bn in purchasing power parity. This sum is equivalent to 39% of the combined federal and state education budgets in 2016.

"The average sum paid as a cash bribe in Nigeria is approximately N5,300. This means that every time a Nigerian pays a cash bribe, he or she spends an average of 28.2% of the average monthly salary of N18,900,” the NBS report added.

According to the survey, in a year at least 82m bribes were paid to public officials. Furthermore, it revealed that of the 52% of Nigerians that had contact with public officials in that period, no fewer than 32% of them paid or were asked to pay a bribe.

In addition, the study also revealed that cash is overwhelmingly the preferred form of bribe with 97.3% of respondents saying officials made direct request for cash. Food and drinks comes in distant second with 1.4.% followed by exchange of other services of favour at 1.1% and valuables at 0.8%.

According to the NBS, the Nigerian police is by far the most corrupt public institution. Its survey revealed that that the frequency of bribery was more among police officers at 46.4%, while incidences of bribery in the judiciary comes second, with prosecutors and judges flagged as being among the most corrupt.