Nigeria slips in global ranking, joins 38 most corrupt nations

Nigeria has been ranked 142nd out of 182 countries in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index released on Tuesday by Transparency International, scoring 26 out of a possible 100.

The ranking marks a drop of two places from Nigeria’s 140th position in the 2024 index, although the country’s score remained unchanged at 26.

No explanation was provided for the unchanged score.

With this position, Nigeria is listed among the 38 most corrupt countries globally, sharing the 142nd spot with Cameroon, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Guatemala and Papua New Guinea.

Across Africa, Seychelles emerged as the best-performing country with a score of 68, followed by Cabo Verde (62), Botswana (58) and Rwanda (58).

Other African nations ranked ahead of Nigeria included Mauritius, Namibia, Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya and Egypt.

At the lower end of the index were Sudan (14), Eritrea (13), Somalia (9) and South Sudan (9).

Globally, Denmark topped the index with 89 points, followed by Finland (88), Singapore (84), New Zealand (81), Norway (81), Sweden (80), Switzerland (80), Luxembourg (78), the Netherlands (78), and Germany and Iceland (77) completing the top ten.

Transparency International noted that corruption remained a major challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, which recorded an average score of 32 out of 100, making it the lowest-performing region on the index.

The organisation said only four of the 49 countries in the region scored above 50, while 10 countries had significantly worsened since 2012 and only seven had shown improvement, indicating that current anti-corruption measures were largely ineffective.

“Corruption remains a serious problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. With an average score of 32 out of 100 and only four out of the 49 countries scoring above 50, Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest-performing region on the global index of 182 countries.

“Ten of the 49 countries in the region have significantly worsened since 2012, and only seven have improved in the same period, highlighting that current anti-corruption efforts are not yielding expected results.

“Transparency International is raising concerns that corruption in the management of public funds reflects a lack of political integrity among leaders, hinders people’s ability to access key services, and affects everyday life, impacting the most vulnerable people the hardest.

“To improve people’s lives, governments in the region should prioritise meaningful action to combat corruption and strengthen democracy,” the report added.

On August 26, 2025, during his trip to Brazil, President Bola Tinubu announced that he had eliminated corruption in Nigeria.

He said the reduced corruption level was due to the economic reforms of his administration.(Punch)