Nigerians spend about N400 billion on bribe in one year, according to the latest report issued by the National Bureau of Statistics.
Taking into account the fact that nine out of every ten bribes paid to public officials in Nigeria are
paid in cash and the size of the payments made, it is estimated that the total amount of bribes paid
to public officials in Nigeria in the 12 months prior to the survey was around N400 billion, the equivalent of $4.6 billion in purchasing power parity (PPP), the report said.
This sum is equivalent to 39 per cent of the combined federal and state education budgets in 2016.
Bribe-payers in Nigeria spend an eighth of their salary on bribes, the report further revealed.
The average sum paid as a cash bribe in Nigeria is approximately NGN 5,300, which is equivalent to
roughly $61 – PPP. This means that every time a Nigerian pays a cash bribe, he or she spends an
average of about 28.2 per cent of the average monthly salary of approximately NGN 18,900. Since
bribe-payers in Nigeria pay an average of 5.8 bribes over the course of one year, 92 per cent of
which are paid in cash, they spend an average of NGN 28,200 annually on cash bribes ― equivalent
to 12.5 per cent of the annual average salary.
According to the report, almost a third of Nigerian adults pay bribes when in contact with public officials
A third of Nigerian adults (32.3 per cent) who had contact with a public official between June
2015 and May 2016 had to pay, or were requested to pay, a bribe to that public official. The
magnitude of public sector bribery in Nigeria becomes even more palpable when factoring in the
frequency of those payments, as the majority of those who paid a bribe to a public official did so
more than once over the course of the year.
According to the survey, bribe-payers in Nigeria pay an average of some six bribes in one year, or roughly one bribe every two months. On average, almost one bribe is paid by every adult Nigerian per year
By combining the total number of people who paid a bribe to a public official with the frequency of
those payments, it is estimated that a total of roughly 82.3 million bribes were paid in Nigeria in the
12 months prior to the survey. This results in an average of 0.93 bribes paid per adult, or almost one
bribe paid by every adult Nigerian per year.
