Bribery Report: Nigerians Paid N675b in Bribe in 2019

• Bribery Report: Nigerians Paid N675b in Bribe in 2019

The number of Nigerians that paid bribes to public officials remains fairly high in 2019, a recent report by the Data Development and Dissemination Unit of the Research and Trend Analysis Branch, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has shown.

According to the report, 30.2 per cent of Nigerians who came in contact with public officials paid a bribe or were asked to pay a bribe in 2019, slightly lower than the 32.3 per cent recorded in 2016.

While the percentage of Nigerians that had contact with public officials and paid bribes or were asked to pay bribes was smaller, Nigerian bribe-payers pay bribe more frequently.

On average, Nigerian bribe-payers paid at least 6 bribes per year, representing one bribe every two months. Therefore, an estimated 117 million bribes are paid in the country annually. Suggesting 1.1 bribes are paid per adult.

Accordingly, most of the bribes paid in 2019 were done in cash with average cash bribe paid rising to N5,754 or $52 in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). According to the report, 93 per cent of all bribes paid in 2019 was done in cash and estimated at N675 billion, about 0.52 per cent of the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“The economic cost of bribery becomes even more palpable when considering that, on average, bribe-payers pay an amount equivalent to 6 per cent of the average annual income of Nigerians,” the report noted.

60 per cent of the bribery transactions were initiated by public officials in exchange for a service or favour.

“Bribery dealings can be initiated in different ways: direct bribery requests by a public official accounted for 60 per cent of all bribery transactions in Nigeria in 2019, representing a moderate decrease from the 66 per cent recorded in the 2016 survey. As in 2016, indirect requests for a bribe accounted for 20 per cent of all bribery transactions, while spontaneous payments to facilitate or to accelerate a procedure accounted for 8 per cent. Some 5 per cent of bribes were also paid with no prior request from the bribe-taker as a sign of appreciation to a public official for services rendered.

“Around two thirds of bribes (67 per cent) are paid before a service is provided by a public official, according to the 2019 survey, a proportion only slightly smaller than the 70 per cent recorded in the 2016 survey. The consistently large share of bribes paid in anticipation of a service to be rendered by a public official is an indication that bribes are often requested before action is taken to deliver a service. ”

In the last three years, bribery declined in the North-East from 36 percent in 2016 to 25 percent in 2019. While North-West and South-West recorded smaller decreases, the prevalence of bribery surged in the North-Central, South-East and South-South regions.