A Policy Report on Ant-Corrupton Performance in Nigeria (1999 – 2024): Successes, Chalenges and te Way Forward

Corruption remains a critical impediment to Nigeria’s socio-economic growth and political
stability as with all nations of the world where corruption is evident in government and
society. Historically, corruption has plagued Nigeria since its independence in 1960, with
notable scandals such as the 1970s cement import scandal which saw government officials
sign off on importing about 20 million tons of cement to a port with a cargo capacity of 1
million tons of cargo annually and the widespread mismanagement of oil revenue during the
military era. By 1999, the return to democracy marked a renewed commitment to combating
corruption, but the entrenched culture of graft proved to be a significant challenge.

Since 1999, successive governments have introduced initiatives at combating corruption,
including the ICPC Act 2000, the EFCC Act 2003, the FoI Act 2011, and the National Anti Corruption Strategy, among several others. However, these efforts have only modestly
reduced grand and bureaucratic corruption, and improved Nigeria’s ranking on global
corruption indices by only a fraction, if any. The World Bank estimates annual losses of 2%
of Nigeria’s GDP due to corruption, amounting to billions of dollars that could have been
invested in critical sectors such as education, health and infrastructure. For instance, 2% of
Nigeria’s current GDP of 362.81 billion USD amounts to approximately 7.2562 billion USD.

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