Categories: News

40 of Sub-Saharan Africa’s 46 Countries Top Corruption List

Anti-corruption non-governmental organization Transparency International (TI) has released its list of most — as well as least — corrupt nations, and 40 of Sub-Saharan Africa’s countries have landed on the most-corrupt part of the list, reports BBC.

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Using its annual corruption index, TI measures how likely a society will punish corrupt government officials as well as how high are its overall corruption levels.

TI’s investigations indicate that there is a direct correlation between war and corruption: countries that are war torn, have compromised or “weak” courts and police, and lack an independent media tend to have the highest levels of corruption.

By TI’s calculations, the countries ranked as the most corrupt in the world are Somalia and North Korea.

The remaining nations filling out the top 10 are Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Angola, Libya, Iraq, Venezuela, Guinea-Bissau, and Haiti.

Conversely, those nations where public sector corruption is the lowest include countries where there is clear transparency on how money is spent. These nations’ judges also make no distinction between the poor and the rich.

The top 10 “cleanest” countries include Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, and Canada, with Luxembourg and the United Kingdom tied at 10th place.

Regarding African countries, TI gave honorable mentions to both Ghana and Senegal.

Last year, Face2Face Africa reported on Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas who released the documentary “Ghana in the Eyes of God, Epic of Injustice” last September.

The film forced the suspension of seven High Court judges and 22 lower court judges for being caught on camera taking bribes.

In light of Anas’ film, TI said that Ghanaians have “worked hard to drive out the corrupt.”

In Senegal, the government of incumbent President Macky Sall was noted for introducing a number of anti-corruption laws, with TI stating that the West African nation was one of the countries (in addition to Greece and the United Kingdom) to have the most-improved scores on the corruption index.

Abena Agyeman-Fisher

Abena Agyeman-Fisher is the Editor-in-Chief of Face2Face Africa. Most recently, she worked for Interactive One as the Senior Editor of NewsOne, she worked for AOL as the News Programming Manager of Black Voices, which later became HuffPo Black Voices, and for the New York Times Company as an Associate Health Editor. Abena, a Spelman College graduate, has been published in Al Jazeera, the Daily Beast, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, the Grio, BlackVoices, West Orange Patch, About.com, the Source, Vibe, Vibe Vixen, Jane, and Upscale Magazines. She has interviewed top celebrities, icons, and politicians, such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, Civil Rights activist and diplomat Andrew Young, comedian Bill Cosby, Grammy Award-winning singer Jill Scott, actress and singer Queen Latifah, Olympic Gold winner Cullen Jones, international supermodel Alek Wek, and five-division world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather. Most recently, she served as the First Lady’s press reporter during President Barack Obama’s U.S.-Africa Summit, Young African Leaders Institute event, and the 2013 presidential trip to Senegal, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Tanzania. Abena is also a 2015 International Women's Media Foundation Africa Great Lakes Fellow, where she reported on women candidates and Chinese sweatshops in Tanzania for CNN and Refinery29.