As reported by Nigerians, corruption ranked fourth among the most important problems affecting the country in 2023, after the cost of living, insecurity and unemployment. This suggests relatively stable and high levels of concerns about corruption over time and compared to other concerns such as education or
housing.
This was stated in the third round of the Nigeria Corruption Survey, which marks a significant milestone in Nigeria’s ongoing efforts to combat corruption. Conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and supported by the MacArthur Foundation and Denmark, this survey provides a critical tool for evidence-based policymaking, enabling a comprehensive analysis of corruption trends and the effectiveness of anti-corruption strategies.
Nigerians’ confidence in the government’s anti-corruption effort has declined 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 less than a third of all citizens.
The downward trend in the citizens’ confidence is observable across the entire country, with all six zones recording reductions of more than 10 percentage points between 2019 and 2023 regarding the share of citizens who thought the government was effective in fighting corruption.
The prevalence of bribe payments to private sector actors (such as doctors in private hospitals and employees of private companies) increased significantly, from 6 per cent of citizens who had at least one contact with a private sector actor in 2019 to 14 per cent in 2023. The increase in private-sector bribery between 2019 and 2023 was observed across all regions and all types of private employees.
Despite this increase, the prevalence of bribery in the public sector remains approximately twice as high as in the private sector. Furthermore, the contact rate of citizens with the public sector is about twice (56 per cent) as high as the contact with private sector actors (28 per cent).
