Twelve African countries are ranked among the 75 least corrupt nations in the world, according to the 2012 indexpublished Wednesday by Transparency International.
Published annually, the Corruption Perceptions Index draws upon a range of data sources to determine how corrupt countries’ public sectors are perceived to be. On a scale from 100 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt), two-thirds of all countries scored below 50. This year’s survey includes 176 countries, down from 182 in 2011.
The top eight in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in 2012 also led the list in 2011, with approximately the same global rankings, ranging from 65 to 43. Liberia – at number 11 in sub-Sahara with a score of 41 – saw its global ranking rise 16 points – from number 91 last year to 75 in 2012.
Botswana, Cape Verde, Mauritius, Rwanda, Namibia, Ghana and Lesotho led the SSA rankings, along with South Africa, which dropped two places this year – to nine from seven. Gambia, which was ninth last year, dropped this year to 21 in SSA and 105 globally. Tunisia, which is grouped with Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, is tied with Liberia at 75 on the global rankings.
Nigeria and Kenya both received the low ranking of 139, compared with 143 for Nigeria and 154 for Kenya in 2011. Cameroun, the Congo Republic (Brazzaville) and the Central African Republic are ranked 144. Angola is 157, DR Congo 160 and Equatorial Guinea 163. Crowding the bottom among the most corrupt in the world are Chad (163), Sudan (173 and Somalia (174 – last).
Below are rankings (SSA/Global) and scores for all SSA countries in the index.
1/30 Botswana   65
2/39 Cape Verde   60
3/43 Mauritius   57
4/50 Rwanda   53
5/51 Seychelles   52
6/58 Namibia   48
7/64 Ghana   45
7/64 Lesotho   45
9/69 South Africa   43
10/72 Sao Tome and Principe   42
11/75 Liberia   41
12/83 Burkina Faso   38
13/88 Malawi   37
13/88 Swaziland   37
13/88 Zambia   37
16/94 Benin   36
16/94 Djibouti   36
16/94 Senegal   36
19/102 Gabon   35
19/102 Tanzania   35
21/105 Gambia   34
21/105 Mali   34
23/113 Ethiopia   33
23/113 Niger   33
25/118 Madagascar   32
26/123 Mauritania   31
126/23 Mozambique   31
26/123 Sierra Leone   31
29/128 Togo   30
30/130 Côte d´Ivoire   29
30/130 Uganda   29
32/133 Comoros   28
33/139 Kenya   27
33/139 Nigeria   27
35/144 Cameroon   26
35/144 Central African Republic   26
35/144 Congo Republic   26
38/150 Eritrea   25
38/150 Guinea-Bissau   25
40/154 Guinea   24
41/157 Angola   22
42/160 Democratic Republic of the Congo   21
43/163 Equatorial Guinea   20
43/163 Zimbabwe   20
45/165 Burundi   19
45/165 Chad   19
47/173 Sudan   13
48/174 Somalia   8
The full list is available here.
