The Most Corrupt Nations On The African Continent
The annual 2011 corruption index supplied by Transparency International (TI) published Botswana as Africa’s least corrupt country for consecutive years. Nigeria was again bottom of the pile and subsequently named Africa’s most corrupt country, followed closely by Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Congo, Angola, Kenya and Cameroon. On a world scale, Finland in Scandinavia was announced as the cleanest country and Haiti in the Caribbean as the most corrupt country in the world. Out of the 146 countries surveyed, 60 countries were noted as playing host to ”rampant corruption”. One trend that did show was that oil producing nations are at much higher risk from corruption with over $400 billion US going missing annually.
Although corruption is rife in many African nations, it’s not obviously prevalent in many of them and if you are just heading over on Zambia safari or a holiday for a couple of weeks, you are not likely to experience anything out of the ordinary. Corruption in Africa tends to vary from multimillion dollar scams that go through government to your everyday corruption bribing police officers on the street. It is a good idea to familiarise yourself with what goes on in the country you are travelling to so you can prepare yourself in case you get caught up in a situation, but as a tourist nothing of any serious nature should happen to you, and heading out to the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania or the Masaai Mara in Kenya should be a joyous and unique experience rather than a holiday from hell.
Botswana, the least corrupt country in Africa scored a total of 6.0 out of 10 on the corruption index which is ranked higher than 10 states in the European Union and means that Botswana is the 31st least corrupt nation in the world. Many of the African nations who find themselves at the bottom of this corruption index year in year out are actively trying to rid corruption in all forms beginning with the top level, in government. In no case should these figures put you off taking a Botswana safari as it’s more an indicator for the local people that live in the country and not so much for tourists travelling to these regions.










