Six in ten people who dealt with a prosecutor in 2023 paid a bribe
How often Nigerians who dealt with each type of public official paid a bribe, from the 2023 national survey on corruption by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Of Nigerian adults who had contact with a public official in the 12 months before the 2023 survey, 27 percent paid at least one bribe. Bribe payers paid 5.1 bribes on average, and the cash bribes paid that year came to about ₦721 billion, roughly 0.35 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Source: National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Corruption in Nigeria, Patterns and Trends, third survey, July 2024, Figure 3. The 2016 and 2019 figures are the recalculated values given in the 2023 report, counting only people who paid, so the three surveys can be compared.
The overall rate fell slightly, but it rose sharply for most types of official. Among people who dealt with a prosecutor, 62 percent paid a bribe in 2023, against 23 percent in 2019. For judges and magistrates the rate rose from 19 to 50 percent, and for police officers from 31 to 39 percent.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Corruption in Nigeria, Patterns and Trends, third survey, July 2024, Figure 21. Each rate is the share of people who paid a bribe among those who dealt with that type of official, not a share of all adults. The survey fieldwork was carried out in October and November 2023.
Show the figures
| Official | Paid a bribe |
|---|---|
| Prosecutors | 62% |
| Land registry officers | 53% |
| Judges and magistrates | 50% |
| Customs or immigration officers | 48% |
| Embassy or consulate officers | 48% |
| Members of Parliament | 46% |
| Police officers | 39% |
| Vehicle inspection officers | 39% |
| Federal Road Safety Corps | 38% |
| Tax and revenue officers | 36% |
| Members of the armed forces | 33% |
| Local government representatives | 22% |
| Other public officials | 20% |
| Public utilities officers | 19% |
| Teachers and lecturers | 13% |
| Other health workers | 11% |
| Doctors, nurses or midwives | 8% |
Each rate is measured among people who dealt with that type of official, so the rates are not shares of all adults. Public utilities officers were the only type of official for whom the rate fell between 2019 and 2023.