Nigeria has recorded an improved ranking in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), moving five places up, a report by Transparency International (TI) has disclosed.
This is as the nation now ranks 145 out of the 180 countries assessed, a shift from its 150th position recorded in 2022.
Nigeria gained one point in addition to moving up five positions in the most recent TI corruption index, bringing its total to 25 out of a possible 100 points in the 2023 CPI results.
Persecondnews reports that the CPI, which is the most widely used global corruption ranking in the world, measures how corrupt each country’s public sector is perceived to be.
It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero means “highly corrupt” and 100 means very clean.”.
Speaking during the launch of the index on Tuesday in Abuja, the Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), and Head, Transparency International (Nigeria), Mr. Auwal Ibrahim Musa, popularly known as Rafsanjani, said Nigeria’s score is below the sub-Saharan African average of 33 points.
He pointed out that this year’s CPI “does not show specific incidences of corruption in the country; it indicates the perception of corruption in Nigeria.”
Rafsanjani said: “The index is impartial, objective, and globally acknowledged as the most widely used cross-country parameter for measuring corruption.
“In this year’s CPI release, it is important to highlight that this is not an assessment of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies, which are making commendable efforts in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
“The data used for the CPI is not collected by CISLAC/TI-Nigeria but by independent and reputable organisations with rigorous research methodologies.
“The CPI is highly consequential, as governments, business entities, civil society organizations and others direct their decisions based on this assessment.”
“It is important to highlight that this is the first CPI under this administration; thus, it will be used as a benchmark for subsequent years,” Persecondnews quotes him as saying.
He listed key areas to explain why Nigeria showed some improvement and areas where gaps persist.
Some of the positive points, according to the CISLAC Executive Director, include the launch of the Beneficial Ownership Register; Vibrant Media, Civil Society and citizenry in demanding transparency and accountability; and arrests and recoveries by anti-corruption agencies.
On the areas where gaps persist and will need to be improved on, he listed them as: “Electoral corruption, judicial corruption, corruption in the security sector, opaqueness of public institutions, wasteful expenditures, reward of corrupt and questionable individuals with appointments, and failure to prosecute high-profile cases.”
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