70% of Nigerians refuse to pay bribes - NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says 70 percent of Nigerians refused to pay bribes in 2023 on at least one occasion.

This is according to the NBS Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends Report released in Abuja on Thursday.

The report said the bribery refusal rate was found to be highest in the North-West at 76 percent, although the refusal rate recorded in all the zones was above 60 percent.

In 2023, fewer citizens reported suffering negative consequences after refusing bribe requests, at 38 percent compared with the 49 percent recorded in 2019.

“This suggests that Nigerians feel increasingly empowered to confront corrupt officials without fear of repercussions.”

The report said that in 2023, 21 percent of all bribe refusers indicated that their main reason for refusing a bribe request was because they had other options for getting what they wanted.

It showed that 42 percent of bribe-refusers did so because it was the right, moral thing to do, while 23 percent refused because they could not afford the requested gift or payment.

“This data shows that normative concerns as well as cost of living pressures play an important role in explaining why Nigerians refuse to pay bribes.”

The report revealed that corruption ranked fourth among the most significant problems affecting the country in 2023, at 10.9 percent.

“Corruption came after the cost of living at 22.6 percent, insecurity and unemployment at 19 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

“This suggests relatively stable and high levels of concerns about corruption over time and compared to other concerns such as education or housing.”

The report said Nigerians’ confidence in the government’s anti-corruption effort had been declining over time and across regions.

It said that in 2019, more than half of all citizens thought that the government was effective in fighting corruption; however, 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.”

The report said in 2023, more than half of all bribes paid to public officials were requested directly by those officials at 52 percent, while indirect requests accounted for 23 percent.

“This was followed by the facilitation procedure at nine percent, the sign of appreciation at eight percent, and the third-party request at five percent.”

It revealed that more than 95 percent of all bribes paid in 2023 were paid in monetary form (cash or money transfer), a slightly larger share than what was recorded in 2019.

“Others are food and drink at eight percent, animals at seven percent, and exchange for other services at four percent.”

The report said that roughly N721 billion was paid in cash bribes to public officials in Nigeria in 2023, corresponding to 0.35 percent of the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria.

In 2023, out of all citizens who paid a bribe, 8.6 percent reported their experience to an official institution capable of investigating or otherwise following up and acting on that report.

“This represents a marked increase in the bribery reporting rate since 2019, when it stood at 3.6 percent.

“The increase is primarily driven by developments in the Northern Zone, where the bribery reporting rate increased markedly from 4.7 percent in 2019 to 13.4 percent in 2023.

“In the southern zones, the bribery reporting rate instead decreased moderately from 2.5 percent in 2019 to 1.7 percent in 2023.”

The report said more formal procedures were initiated due to reporting at 45 percent and fewer cases had no follow-up at 17 percent.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this is the third round of the corruption survey, with the first two rounds held in 2016 and 2019, respectively, across the 36 states and the FCT.

The corruption survey, also known as the National Survey on Quality and Integrity of Public Services in Nigeria, was implemented by NBS in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).