Petty crimes and corruption constitute serious obstacles to conducting business in Nigeria, a study jointly carried out by the European Union, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and National Bureau of Statistics, has shown.

About 50 percent of Nigerian businesses were victims of crime in the last one year, while a third have to pay bribes when coming in contact with the public sector, particularly the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

The report of the survey, ‘NBS/EFCC Business Crime and Corruption Surve,’ was presented in Abuja yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics. It was carried out in 2007 as part of the project “Support to EFCC and the Nigerian Judiciary” funded by the European Union with 25 million Euros.

Serious obstacles “The survey reveals that for more than 70% of Nigerian businesses, crime and corruption constitute the most serious obstacles to conducting business in Nigeria,” stated the report. “Indeed it turned out that on average more than 50% of Nigerian businesses become victims of crime at least once a year. At the same time more than a third of business seem to be forced to pay bribes when coming into contact with the public sector. In particular, police and customs appear to be affected.”

According to a statement by the EU in Nigeria yesterday in Abuja, the survey covered over 2000 businesses across the country and sectors of the economy and was aimed at gathering the perception and experiences of businesses with regard to corruption and crime, as well as their opinion regarding the efforts of the Nigerian government.

Ugo Sokari, public relations officer for the US, said that the presentation of the report was attended by large group of stakeholders, including representatives of anti-corruption agencies, public sector institutions, academia, civil society as well as the private sector and media. The participants discussed the findings of the survey and reaffirmed the key importance of the data for the purpose of policy development as well as benchmarking the performance of government initiatives and institutions in the fight against crime and corruption.