According to a research by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Nigerian public officials collected a total of ₦721 billion in bribes in 2023.
The findings are based on a survey performed with the UNODC.
The NBS report “Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends” issued on Thursday found that bribes totaled ₦721 billion, accounting for around 0.35 percent of Nigeria’s GDP.
According to the report, the average monetary bribe was ₦8,284, up from ₦5,754 in 2019.
“According to the 2023 poll, the average monetary bribe was 8,284 Nigerian naira. The nominal average cash bribe amount has increased since 2019 (from NGN 5,754), however this does not account for inflation. The inflation-adjusted average cash bribe in 2023 was 29% less than in 2019.
“Overall, it is estimated that a total of roughly NGN 721 billion (US$1.26 billion) was paid in cash bribes to public officials in Nigeria in 2023, corresponding to 0.35 per cent of the entire Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria,” a portion of the research said.
According to the research, 56% of Nigerians interacted with a public official in 2023, a decrease from 63% in 2019.
Despite this drop, bribery is still prevalent, with an average of 5.1 bribes paid per bribe payer, totaling around 87 million bribes nationwide. This represents a drop from the 117 million bribes predicted in 2019.
According to the research, more than 95% of bribes were paid in monetary form (cash or money transfer) in 2023.
It stated that public authorities were more likely to demand bribes, although private sector players, including doctors at private hospitals, grew from 6% in 2019 to 14% in 2023.
Despite this increase, bribery in the public sector remains approximately twice as high, and public sector contact rates are also twice as high as in the private sector.
In 2023, 27% of Nigerians who met with a public official paid a bribe, down slightly from 29% in 2019. More than one-third of encounters between citizens and public officials involved bribery, including cases where bribes were requested but declined.
Similarly, the survey indicates an increasing number of Nigerians rejecting to accept bribes. In 2023, 70% of individuals approached to pay a bribe declined at least once, with the North-West zone having the highest refusal percentage (76%). All regions had refusal rates more than 60 percent. This suggests that Nigerians are increasingly opposing corruption.
According to the survey, bribery is becoming less acceptable in Nigeria. Bribery demands to expedite administrative proceedings were viewed as acceptable by 29% of citizens in 2019, but only 23% in 2023.
In 2023, fewer citizens reported unfavorable consequences for resisting bribes than in 2019. This implies a rising willingness of Nigerians to challenge corrupt leaders without fear of retribution.
In 2023, 21% of bribe refusers said they refused because they had other choices. Their refusal to accept bribes was also influenced by normative considerations (42%), as well as cost-of-living pressures (23%).
Between 2020 and 2023, at least 60% of public sector workers were employed through nepotism, bribery, or both.
According to the survey, six out of every ten successful candidates acknowledged to employing nepotism, bribery, or both to increase their chances of being hired.
Specifically, 27% of these candidates admitted to utilizing only bribery, 13% to solely nepotism, and 19% to both. According to data collected between November 2020 and October 2023, 40% of candidates claimed to have secured their positions without using any of these methods.
The report read, “The selection process used to recruit public officials plays a crucial role in shaping the culture of integrity that should drive the civil service as well as ensure that recruits have the highest standards of professionalism and merit.
However, the 2023 survey findings indicate that the public sector recruitment process requires closer monitoring, as almost half (46 per cent) of people who secured a job in the public sector in the last three years before the survey admitted that they paid a bribe to facilitate their recruitment – about 1.5 times the share found in the 2019 survey (31 per cent).
“The 2023 survey also found evidence that a considerable number of people recruited into the public sector secured their posts with the help of a friend or relative, many in addition to paying a bribe: of all successful applicants in the last three years before the 2023 survey, 32 per cent were helped by friends or relatives. Overall, in the three years before the 2023 survey, around 60 per cent of public sector applicants in Nigeria were hired as a result of nepotism, bribery or both – about 1.2 times the share found in the 2019 survey.”
The report also noted that the use of bribery is notably lower when the recruitment process includes formal assessments.
Specifically, 51 per cent of candidates were not formally assessed, and of these, a significant 53 per cent admitted to using bribery or nepotism to secure their positions.
Conversely, among the 49 per cent of candidates who underwent a written test or oral interview, the use of unethical means such as bribery or nepotism dropped to 41 per cent.
The report read: “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 before the survey passed a written test and/or oral interview during the recruitment selection process. 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.”
It was also disclosed that bribery is more common in rural areas, with rural residents paying an average of 5.8 bribes compared to 4.5 bribes in urban areas.
It was also disclosed that bribery is more common in rural areas, with rural residents paying an average of 5.8 bribes compared to 4.5 bribes in urban areas.
The report stated that corruption was ranked fourth among the most important problems affecting the country in 2023, after the cost of living, insecurity and unemployment.
It added, “This suggests relatively stable and high levels of concerns about corruption over time and compared to other concerns such as education or housing.
“Nigerians confidence in the government’s anti-corruption effort has been declining over time and across regions. While in 2019, more than half of all citizens thought that the government was effective in fighting corruption, in 2023, the share declined to lessons than a third of all citizens. The downward trend in the citizen’s confidence is observable across the entire country, with all six zones recording reductions of more than 10 percentage points between 2019 and 2023 in terms of the share of citizens who thought the government was effective in fighting corruption.”
