Nigeria drops 12 places to 148 in latest Transparency International Corruption Perception Index

TRANSPARENCY International has published its 2017 Corruption Perception Index showing that Nigeria has dropped 12 places to 148th out of the 180 places it surveyed from 136th position in 2016.

In the latest rankings, Nigeria scored 27% and is in 148th position alongside Comoros and Guinea. Botswana was ranked the least corrupt country in Africa with 61% and occupies 34th position globally.

Other African countries ranked above Nigeria apart from Botswana include Cape Verde, Rwanda, Namibia, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Tunisia, Ghana, Morocco, Benin, Swaziland, Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Niger, Egypt, Gabon, Togo, Djibouti, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Mauritania. According to Transparency International, corruption has increased globally and much is not done to curb it.

A Transparency International spokesman said: “This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index highlights that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, while further analysis shows journalists and activists in corrupt countries risking their lives every day in an effort to speak out. The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

"This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. Unfortunately, compared to recent years, this poor performance is nothing new.”

New Zealand was ranked first position with a score of 89%, while other countries in the top 10 include Denmark, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, Canada, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and the UK.  Among the 10 bottom ranked countries are Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia.