Nigeria’s ranking on the corruption perception index has continued to drop in the last five years, with the latest report placing the nation as the second most corrupt country in West Africa after it was ranked (#159) out of 180 countries surveyed globally.
According to Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perception Index, Nigeria dropped to (#159) in 2021, from (#149) in 2020 rankings, scoring 24 points out of 100 points – an indication that corruption in the country’s public sector has worsened over the last five years despite the current administration’s effort to curb bad practices.
The index assigns each country a score on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt, and 100 is very clean.
It can be recalled that in the 2019 report, Nigeria was ranked (#146) out of the 180 countries surveyed, with a score of 26 points out of 100 points. In the 2020 report, Nigeria’s position dropped three spots to (#149) out of the 180 countries surveyed, with a score of 25 points out of 100 points.
Nigeria follows Guinea Bissau, ranked (#163) on the index as the most corrupt nation in West Africa, scoring 21 points. In Sub-Saharan Africa, South Sudan and Libya are perceived as the most corrupt nations in the region and on earth.
Other countries perceived as more corrupt than Nigeria include: Zimbabwe, Chad, Eritrea, Burundi, Comoros, Congo, Guinea Bissau, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, and South Sudan.
Comparatively, Seychelles (#23), Africa’s smallest country, is also its least corrupt nation with a score of 70. Other notable improvements include neighboring countries like Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, and Tanzania, rising into the list of least corrupt countries.
Globally, Nordic countries Denmark and Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt countries at the top of the index with scores of 88 each. Europe, in general, had 14 of the top 20 least corrupt countries. Asia also had many notable entrants, including Singapore (tied for #4), Hong Kong (#12), and Japan (tied for #18).