Nigeria up five places to 140th in TI corruption index — but still performs poorly

Nigeria has climbed five spots on the 2024 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 140th out of 180 countries with a score of 26 out of 100.

This marks a slight improvement from the previous year when the country ranked 145th with a score of 25.

The index, published on Tuesday, measures perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 indicates high levels of corruption, and 100 means very clean.

The organisation defines corruption as bribery, diversion of public funds, misuse of public office for personal gain, and the inability of governments to contain corruption.

It also highlights practices such as nepotistic appointments in the civil service, lack of financial disclosure by public officials, and insufficient protection for whistleblowers as contributing factors.

Despite the recent improvement, Nigeria’s progress has been slow. In 2022, the country scored 24 out of 100 and ranked 150th, while in 2021, it scored the same but placed 154th — its worst performance under former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The country’s best performance in the last decade was in 2015 and 2016, when it ranked 136th.

President Bola Tinubu has repeatedly pledged to tackle corruption in Nigeria and called on other African leaders to join the fight.

However, last year, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) controversially named Tinubu a finalist for its ‘Corrupt Person of the Year’ award.