N400BN SPENT ON BRIBES YEARLY SAY NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that N400 billion was paid to public officials as bribes every year in the country.

It said the amount is equivalent to 38 per cent of the combined federal and state education budgets in 2016 and also equivalent to $4.6 billion in purchasing power parity (PPP).

This was contained in its report on "Corruption in Nigeria- bribery as experienced by population".

The report stated that: "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 N402 billion.

It also affirmed that "almost a third of Nigerian citizens (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, Nigerian bribe-payers 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".

The report also asserted that "Nigerian bribe-payers spend an eighth of their salary on bribes as 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 N18, 900.

Since Nigerian bribe-payers pay an average of 5.8 bribes over the course of one year, 91.9 per cent of which are paid in cash, they spend an average of N28, 200 annually on cash bribes ― equivalent to 12.5 per cent of the annual average salary.