Nigeria has got its worst rating on the Transparency International corruption perception index since 2015.
In the 2020 index released on Thursday, the country scored 25 out of a possible 100 points — with zero signifying the worst performing countries and 100, the best-ranked.
Nigeria dropped to 149 out of the 180 countries surveyed, making it the second most corrupt country in West Africa.
The 2020 rating is one point below that of 2019 when the country scored 26 points, and two points below its ranking in 2018 and 2017 when it got 27 points.
It is also the worst ranking the country has got in five years: It scored 26 points in 2015 and 28 points in 2016.
This indicates that corruption in the country has worsened over the year.
Nigeria follows Guinea Bissau who finished on 165 as the most corrupt nation in the sub-region scoring 19 points.
Fellow African countries Somalia and South Sudan are perceived as the most corrupt nations on earth.
Of the 49 countries assessed in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 12 are more corrupt than Nigeria. They are Zimbabwe, Chad, Eritrea, Burundi, Congo, Guinea Bissau, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Somalia and South Sudan. Both Somalia and South Sudan.
The report explains that the COVID-19 pandemic created structural gaps in national health care systems, corruption risks associated with public procurement and the misappropriation of emergency funds.