Government agencies collected $4.6 billion as bribes in 2016

shakirudeen taiwo

August 17, 2017 8:35 AM

Nigerians part away with at least N1000 ($3.26) for every interaction with government agency(ies).

A report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Nigerians paid $4.6 billion (N 400 billion) as bribes in 2016. This is stated as a cost of interacting with public agencies in the country.

The report, Corruption in Nigeria: Bribery - Public experience and response, was released on Wednesday, August 16, 2017.

Prevalence of bribery in the public sector was estimated at 32.2%. More so, 92 percent ($4.23 billion (N368 billion)) of total bribe paid were made in cash.

“Corruption is the bane of any progressive society. It stifles entrepreneurship, professionalism and erodes the value of hard work and honesty,... and is one of the root causes of underdevelopment in our society."

"Over the years, we have seen the effect of corruption manifesting across all sectors of society, with collusion across the public to private sectors to sports bodies and even civil society”, the survey report stated.

The report revealed that most of the bribes were paid to evade procedural bottlenecks associated with government agencies. Hence, people pay to speed up procedures, avoid payment of fines or receive preferential treatment.

Nigeria Police Force (NPF) top the list of public agencies that. Other public agencies with whom citizens are at high risk of bribery are car registration/driving licence agency, tax and customs agencies (27.3%), road and traffic management agencies (25.5%), public utility agencies (22.4%) and land registry (20.9%).

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) was noted as the most difficult and expensive public agency to interact with in Nigeria. An average of N88, 587 is paid by citizen per interaction with it in 2016.

The survey exercise covered 33,067 households in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja between June 2015 and May 2016. And it was supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Union (EU).

shakirudeen taiwo

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