The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that judges and officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) allegedly demanded and received N721 billion in bribes in 2023.

The NBS said the officials received bribes to deliver public services, with people in rural areas paying more than those in urban centres.

The bureau revealed this via a report published on its website on Thursday, July 11, 2024.

Bribery was most rife among prosecutors, land registry officers, and customs and immigration officers, though Nigeria’s judges and magistrates received the largest kickbacks, the NBS said.

It stated that Nigerians were forced to pay N 721 billion – equivalent to $1.26 billion using the average exchange rate applicable during the period of the survey – in cash bribes in 2023, corresponding to 0.35% of GDP.

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The bureau noted: “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 estimated number of bribes that exchanged hands declined to 87 million from 117 million in 2019 when the last survey was done. This appears to have been a result of reduced contact with public officials to 53 per cent from 63 per cent of the population.

The nation ranks close to the bottom, 145 out of 180 countries, on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.

Bribe payments in the private sector more than doubled in 2023, though public-sector corruption remained dominant in the West African nation.

The data, collected between October and November, showed that less than a third of Nigerians thought that the government was effective in fighting corruption, down from more than half in 2019 during the tenure of former president Muhammadu Buhari, who was first elected in 2015 on promises to end corruption.

The Star