Corruption Index Blues: Nigeria Holds On to Infamous 36th Spot Globally in 2025

Nigeria has once again found itself in an unenviable position on the global corruption ladder, ranking as the 36th most corrupt country in the world in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International.
The latest report shows that Nigeria slipped slightly in its overall placement, moving from 140th in 2024 to 142nd out of 182 countries assessed in 2025. However, despite the numerical drop, Africa’s most populous nation retained its status as the world’s 36th most corrupt country, mirroring its position in the previous year.
Nigeria shared the same ranking and score of 26 points with Cameroon, Guatemala, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan and Papua New Guinea. The CPI scores countries on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents extreme corruption and 100 denotes a very clean public sector.
The ranking, published on Tuesday via Transparency International’s website, revealed that Denmark remained the world’s least corrupt country with 89 points, followed by Finland (88), Singapore (84) and New Zealand (81). As in previous years, the top 10 cleanest nations were dominated by European countries, with no African nation making the elite list.
On the continent, Seychelles, Cabo Verde and Botswana emerged as Africa’s least corrupt countries, recording scores of 68, 62 and 58 points respectively. At the opposite end of the spectrum, South Sudan, Somalia and Venezuela were ranked the most corrupt countries globally in 2025.
Explaining the methodology behind the index, Transparency International’s Chief Executive Officer, Maíra Martini, said the CPI measures perceived levels of public-sector corruption based on expert assessments and business surveys.
“The results are given on a scale of 0, highly corrupt, to 100, very clean. While 31 countries have significantly reduced corruption since 2012, many others have either stagnated or worsened,” Martini noted.
She added that the global average score has dropped to 42, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50, warning that corruption continues to erode public services, weaken infrastructure development and dim the hopes of young people worldwide.
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