Nigeria is second most corrupt country in West Africa, after Guinea, Transparency International (TI) has said.
This was made known in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index released by the Organisation on Tuesday, saying, Nigeria dropped five places, scoring 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 index.
According to the organization, Nigeria’s current 154 ranking out of 180 countries in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index is a drop of 149 in the 2020 index.
“In the Corruption Perceptions Index 2021, Nigeria ranks 154 out of 180 countries and territories, falling back five places from the rank of 149 in 2020.
“The 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International today shows corruption is on the increase in Nigeria.
“The country scored 24 out of 100 points in the #CPI2021, which is one point less compared to the score of 2020,” the organisation tweeted on its official Twitter handle @TransparencITng, on Tuesday.
It is Nigeria’s second consecutive year of a downward spiral on the TI’s CPI ranking.
The country’s score had dropped from 26 in 2019 to 25 in the 2020 assessment, and further to 24 in the latest 2021 record.
The CPI is TI’s tool for measuring the levels of corruption in the systems of various countries around the world.
The maximum points a country can score is 100 points, and the least is zero. Zero signifies the worst performing countries and 100, the best-ranked.
However, the Federal Government has consistently claimed that it is reducing corruption but the ranking may be an indicator that corruption was getting worse.