African Efforts to Fight Corruption

Corruption in Africa ranges from high-level political graft on the scale of millions of dollars to low-level bribes to police officers or customs officials. While political graft imposes the largest direct financial cost on a country, petty bribes have a corrosive effect on basic institutions and undermine public trust in the government. Over half of East Africans polled paid bribes to access public services that should have been freely available, according to the 2009 East African Bribery Index, compiled by Transparency International. Graft also increases the cost of doing business. Academic research shows that a one-point improvement in a country's Transparency International corruption score is correlated with a productivity increase equal to 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). "If you attack corruption, it's the best way to attack poverty," Nuhu Ribadu, the former head of Nigeria's anti-corruption commission, told BusinessWeek in June 2009. Unaddressed, endemic corruption can also foster unrest. The insurgency in the Niger Delta is fueled by claims that communities in the area do not see tangible benefits from oil extraction on their land; much of the oil revenue meant for the Delta's citizens is siphoned off by government officials.