Nigerians paid N721 billion cash as bribe to public officials in 2023 – NBS

A total of roughly N721 billion was paid in cash as bribes to public officials in 2023, the Nigerian corruption survey published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed.

The survey “Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends” released on Thursday was conducted by the NBS in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and supported by the MacArthur Foundation and the Kingdom of Denmark.

According to the 2023 survey, the average cash bribe paid was N8,284, while the nominal average cash bribe size has increased since 2019 (from N5,754).

This, the report said, does not account for inflation.

It explained that the inflation-adjusted average cash bribe in 2023 was actually 29 per cent smaller than in 2019 in terms of what could be bought with the money.

“Overall, it is estimated that a total of roughly N721 billion ($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 (GDP) of Nigeria,” the report said.

Chart showing average cash bribe size by type of public official, Nigeria, 2023

In 2023, according to the survey, bribes paid in a public official’s office and in the street accounted for around 35 and 36 per cent of all paid bribes, respectively.

It said 11 per cent of bribes were paid in the respondents’ own home, while 7 per cent were paid in public buildings such as restaurants, malls, or stations.

The report noted that in 2023, 5.1 bribes were paid on average by each bribe payer in Nigeria in the twelve months prior to the survey.

This, it said, represents a modest and statistically insignificant decrease in the frequency of bribe-paying from 2019, when on average 5.4 bribes were paid by each bribe payer.

“It is estimated that some 87 million bribes were paid in 2023 (compared with 117 million estimated in 2019), the equivalent of an average of 0.8 bribes per each adult.”

It added that the frequency of bribery is, on average, higher in rural areas than in urban areas.

“In 2023, bribe-payers living in urban areas paid on average 4.5 bribes, while those living in rural areas paid on average 5.8 bribes,” the report said.

The survey said out of all Nigerian citizens who had at least one contact with a public official in the twelve months prior to the 2023 survey, 27 per cent paid a bribe to a public official.

In the context of comparable past estimates, it said this means that the prevalence of bribe payments in Nigeria has undergone a minor but statistically significant decrease since 2019, when it stood at 29 per cent.

It said when also accounting for instances where bribes were requested but citizens refused, more than one in every three interactions (34 per cent) between citizens and public officials in 2023 involved bribery.

Graph showing 34 per cent of citizens with public officials

The NBS report added that 70 per cent of Nigerians who were asked to pay a bribe in 2023, refused to do so on at least one occasion.

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.

The report explained that bribery is becoming less accepted in Nigeria.

“The share of citizens who think that bribery requests are acceptable in order to speed up administrative procedures decreased from 29 per cent in 2019 to 23 per cent in 2023.”

It said fewer citizens report suffering negative consequences after refusing bribe requests in 2023 (38 per cent) compared with 2019 (49 per cent). This, it said, suggests that Nigerians feel increasingly empowered to confront corrupt officials without fear of repercussions.

“In 2023, a sizable share of all bribe-refusers (21 per cent) indicated that their main reason for refusing a bribe request was because they had other options of getting what they wanted.

“The data also show that normative concerns (42 per cent) as well as cost of living pressures (23 per cent) play an important role in explaining why Nigerians refuse to pay bribes,” it said.

Who takes bribes?

The report said bribery prevalence varies widely across different types of public officials.

It said several types of public officials who frequently encounter citizens have relatively small shares of interactions involving bribery such as doctors, nurses, or teachers, while other types of officials who rarely encounter citizens (such as prosecutors or land registry officers) have relatively large shares of interactions involving bribery.

Chart showing bribery prevalence with and without refusal

The NBS said the 2023 corruption survey reconfirms the need for the government to prioritise its corruption prevention and enforcement efforts on those types of institutions and public officials most relevant and present in the lives of ordinary citizens.

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“In essence the majority of Nigerians interact only with five types of public officials, namely doctors, nurses, and midwives (30 per cent), public utility officers (24 per cent), police officers (20 per cent), teachers and lecturers (17 per cent), and other health workers (15 per cent).

“It is therefore advisable that the government focuses where it matters most and is likely to have the greatest relative impact for the common man,” it said.