TheCable

Ben Akabueze, director-general of the budget office of the federation, says investors are active players in corruption in Nigeria.

Akabueze spoke to TheCable on Tuesday in an interview session held on the sidelines of the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings in Washington DC.

Addressing questions on how the perception of corruption could discourage foreign investors, the chartered accountant said the issue is not peculiar to the West African nation.

He said investors are also part of the corruption problem bedevilling the country, highlighting the steps taken by the federal government to curtail corrupt practices.

“First, the challenge of corruption is not peculiar to Nigeria — it’s everywhere,” Akabueze said.

“Number two, when you say address, some of the investors themselves are active players in the corruption, so it’s not that they’re addressing corruption away from the investors

“Corruption is being addressed systematically — and that’s whether you’re an investor or you’re a public official, or you are a local player in any area — one key way of dealing with corruption is greater transparency, opening up the processes of government.

“And then, the government itself, also pulling back as much as possible and eliminating those opportunities for corruption, tightening the legislation.”

Akabueze said the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is actively prosecuting culprits, adding that “there’s a whistleblowers’ programme in place” to also curb the menace.

‘CULPRITS SHOULD BE REPORTED’

“So, if anyone has information, credible information about any corrupt practices, they’re welcome to report them,” the director-general said.

In its 2023 ranking, Transparency International (TI) said Nigeria recorded an improvement in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by moving five places up to rank 145 out of 180 countries assessed.

Apart from moving five places up from its 150th position, the country also gained one point from its previous 24, ending up scoring 25 out of the 100 maximum points in the 2023 CPI results.

The CPI, arguably the most widely used global corruption ranking in the world, measures how corrupt each country’s public sector is perceived to be.

The ranking uses a scale of zero to 100 — where zero means “highly corrupt”, and 100 means “very clean”.

Going by the latest CPI, the perception of corruption is still high.