DESPITE recent Transparency International, TI, report indicting the country of worsened corruption practice between 2016 and 2017, the Federal Government has refuted the allegation, stressing that Nigeria improved in many other indexes in the report.

President Buhari

Transparency International had ranked Nigeria 148 out of 180 countries assessed in 2017 in the annual Corruption Perception Index, CPI, but a closer review of the report indicated clearly that in all of the nine categories of the evaluation, Nigeria fell back in only one category, performing slightly better in some  and maintaining stability in others.

However, a presidency source told Vanguard that ‘’an internal government review of the report indicated that, although TI gave Nigeria an overall lower ranking, the country indeed did well in  majority of the areas reviewed by TI, and remained stable in others, but fell back in only one aspect,’’ stressing that contrary to reports in some sections of the media, Nigeria improved in many other indexes.

“For instance, Nigeria improved significantly in key indexes between 2016 and 2017: the Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index, a 5-point improvement and African Development Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment.”