Africa Day is commemorated annually on 25 May to mark the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, the precursor to the African Union (AU), on this day in 1963. The theme for this year is “Africa – Opportunities in Challenging Times”.

Hopefully, we can show (other) underperforming countries the opportunities they can use to possibly intensify their efforts in rooting out corruption.

Transparency International’s report Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2022 for Sub-Saharan Africa: Compounding Multiple Crises, starts as follows:

A regional average score of 32 out of 100 marks another year of stagnation on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for Sub-Saharan Africa. Forty-four of the 49 countries assessed still score below 50. Gains made by a few countries are outweighed by significant declines in others.

This report indicates how corruption erodes democracy, security and development in Sub-Saharan Africa – and this while the region is struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and with a rise in the cost of living.

Funds are desperately needed for, among other things, the economic, ecological and healthcare challenges in this region, and therefore everything should be done not to lose money to corruption.

In this region, Seychelles continues to lead with a CPI score of 70 out of 100, followed by Botswana and Cabo Verde, each with 60.

The most significant progress has been made in Seychelles. Since 2012, they had improved their score on the CPI with 18 points. Angola improved with 14 points since 2018, standing on 33 in 2022, while Côte d’Ivoire climbed with 10 points since 2013, finding themselves at 37 in 2022.

The worst-performing countries in this region are Burundi and Equatorial Guinea, each with a score of 17 out of 100, South Sudan with 13, and Somalia performing worst at 12.

Conflict and various security challenges have over time weakened institutions and undermined governments’ ability to curb corruption.

It is estimated that tens of billions of dollars illicitly flow out of Sub-Saharan Africa every year.

Consequently, opposition in this region is not tolerated. It is opposed, people are smeared and even arrested. Although the impression is often created that corruption is seriously fought, this is mostly pretense.

Considering this, one understands that there is a lot of focus on corruption during elections in this region. In some cases, integrity of the vote is lacking, and political financing, especially in the run-up to, but also during elections (Kenya in 2022), is a major concern.

Commitment

Botswana performs very well because they have a robust democratic system in which legislative and policy frameworks are constantly being improved. Public sector reform has also made Cabo Verde a top performer in this region. Transparency in government and in business transactions receives a lot of attention too.