A REPORT prepared by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has exposed how Nigerian public officials took N721 billion or $1.26 billion in cash bribes in 2023.
The report released on Friday by the NBS said that average cash bribe paid to these officials in 2023 stood at N8,284. It noted that the nominal average cash bribe size increased from N5,754 in 2019 to N8,284 in 2023, even though the amount was 29 percent smaller in real terms.
“Overall, it is estimated that a total of roughly NGN721 billion (US$1.26 billion1) was paid in cash bribes to public officials in Nigeria in 2023, corresponding to 0.35 per cent of the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria,” the survey noted.
The report disclosed that direct bribery requests by public officials accounted for 52 percent of all the transactions, representing a decrease from 60 percent recorded in the 2019 survey. On the other hand, indirect requests for a bribes accounted for 23 percent of all bribery transactions, while spontaneous payments to facilitate or accelerate a procedure took nine percent.
“Some 8 per cent of bribes were paid with no prior request from the bribe-taker as a sign of appreciation to a public official for services rendered,” the report noted.
According to the survey, more than 95 percent of all bribes paid in 2023 were delivered in monetary form (cash or money transfer), a slightly larger share than in 2019.
The report explained that bribes paid in public official’s offices and in the streets accounted for around 35 and 36 percent of all, while 11 percent of bribes were paid in the respondents’ own homes. Only seven percent were paid in public buildings such as restaurants, malls, or stations.
The report further said that 70 percent of Nigerians who were asked to pay bribes in 2023 refused to do so on at least one occasion, stressing that “the bribery refusal rate was found to be highest in the North-West (at 76 per cent), although all zones recorded refusal rates above 60 per cent.”
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The private sector is not immune to corruption. According to the report, the prevalence of bribe payments to private sector actors (such as doctors in private hospitals and employees of private companies) increased significantly, from six percent of citizens who had at least one contact with a private sector actor in 2019 to 14 percent in 2023.
The report noted that more Nigerians were reporting corruption cases to institutions that could investigate it. “In 2023, out of all citizens who paid a bribe, 8.6 per cent reported their experience to an official institution capable of investigating or otherwise following up and acting on that report. This represents a marked increase in the bribery reporting
rate since 2019 when it stood at 3.6 per cent.”
Women are less exposed
The report said women were less exposed to bribery than men. It found that 39 percent of all men who had contacts with public officials either paid bribes or were asked to do so but refused. The figure for women was significantly lower, at 28 percent.
“This overall difference in bribery exposure between men and women is possibly driven by interactions with a few frequently contacted types of public official, in particular police officers, as well as some less frequently contacted types of officials such as Members of the Armed Forces and embassy and consulate officers, to whom men were more likely than women to pay or be asked to pay a bribe,” it said.
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It disclosed that an estimated 35 percent of all male public officials who had contacts with citizens in the 12 months prior to the 2023 survey engaged in bribery (i.e. were either paid bribes or requested but were refused), while a much smaller share of female public officials (19 percent) requested or received bribes.
“Sexual corruption – the exchange of sexual favours or acts of a sexual nature in place of monetary bribes –affects women more than men in Nigeria. 5.3 per cent of all women interacting with public officials reported having been asked for sexual favours in the three years prior to the survey, while 4.8 cent of men reported experiencing such behaviour – a statistically significant difference.”
The survey also found that people with master’s or bachelor’s degrees were much more likely to pay or be asked to pay bribes than those with no formal education. According to the survey, people with the highest level of (tertiary) education were 1.3 times more likely than people with no formal education to have paid bribes, or been asked and refused to pay bribes, when in contact with public officials.
Recruitment corruption
The report found that nearly half (46 percent) of people who secured jobs in the public sector in the last three years prior to the survey admitted paying bribes to facilitate their recruitments – about 1.5 times the share found in the 2019
survey (31 percent).
It noted that six out of 10 successful candidates for posts in the public sector admitted using either nepotism, bribery or both to improve their chances of recruitment.
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“The 2023 survey data show that approximately half (49 per cent) of those who secured a position in the public sector in the three years prior to the survey passed a written test and/or oral interview during the recruitment selection process,” the report said.
“Importantly, the data suggest that the means of selection had a role in facilitating or preventing the use of illegal practices during recruitment. Among those who underwent an assessment procedure (written test / oral interview), 41 per cent made use of bribery, while the share was as much as 53 per cent among those who were not formally assessed.”
Corruption high in Nigeria
Corruption is rife at both Nigeria’s public and private sectors. However, it is higher in the public sector which is “no man’s sector.”
Economy Post has reported and exposed a number of corruption cases in budgeting, banking, as well as in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.
Economy Post recently identified N369.99 million suspicious and ambiguous items in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation’s 2024 budget.
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It also uncovered the “dubious” 2024 budget of the Federal Ministry of Youth Development.
It also exposed how Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) set aside N190 million in the 2024 budget to purchase a Land Cruiser Jeep for its Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Abdullahi Mustapha, amid Nigeria’s economic struggles.
These are a few among Economy Post’s stories exposing how corruption harms Nigeria and its people.
