Nigerians spend about N400 billion on bribe in one year, according to the latest report issued by the National Bureau of Statistics.

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  N400 billion, the equivalent of $4.6 billion in purchasing power parity (PPP), the report said.

This sum is equivalent to 39 per cent of the combined federal and state education budgets in 2016.

Bribe-payers in Nigeria spend an eighth of their salary on bribes, the report further revealed.

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 NGN 18,900. Since

bribe-payers in Nigeria pay an average of 5.8 bribes over the course of one year, 92 per cent of

which are paid in cash, they spend an average of NGN 28,200 annually on cash bribes ― equivalent

to 12.5 per cent of the annual average salary.

According to the report, almost a third of Nigerian adults pay bribes when in contact with public officials

A third of Nigerian adults (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, bribe-payers in Nigeria 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.