Nigeria, despite its low position on accountability and transparency has however recorded significant economic growth in the world economic league.
What this means is that, in recent years especially, economic growth has not been correlated with low levels of corruption. Nigeria‘s performance was against the judgment of all the reform-minded agencies which argued that low corruption is good for growth and investment, but the newly released regional figures have suggested otherwise.
Contrary to suggestions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Africa’s most corrupt countries have rather attracted more aid and foreign investments than the more transparent ones.
China for example had concentrated its aid in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan where corruption had been high. ‘This means that it is no longer possible to argue that corruption deters foreign direct investment,’ a statement from The World Bank said.
Reports from the offices of the World Bank has claimed that Nigeria has moved up 11 places while other African countries recorded increased corruption ratings.
Sudan went down 67 places, The Gambia went down 66 places, Zimbabwe went down 60, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone both went down 45 places, Ethiopia went down 34 places, Côte d’voire went down 33 and Malawi went down 32 places.
Southern African states such as Botswana, Mauritius, South Africa and Namibia top the African transparency table. Resource-rich nations, especially oil exporters (Sudan, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo , Angola , Congo and Nigeria cluster around the bottom.
