The same day Vice President and Finance minister, Ndaba Gaolathe delivered his maiden budget speech, Transparency International released the latest (2024) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in which Botswana has dropped yet again. Botswana has scored 57/100 from last year’s 59/ 100. This places the country 43rd out of 180 countries, dropping from 39th in 2013. The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories worldwide by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
Corruption Index in Botswana averaged 59.78 Points from 1998 until 2024, reaching an all time high of 65.00 Points in 2012 and a record low of 54.00 Points in 2007. For the seventh year in a row, Denmark heads the ranking, with a score of 90. Finland and Singapore take the second and third spots, with scores of 88 and 84, respectively. Scoring 83, New Zealand is out of the top three positions for the first time since 2012, but it remains in the top 10, together with Luxembourg (81), Norway (81), Switzerland (81), Sweden (80), the Netherlands (78), Australia (77), Iceland (77) and Ireland (77). Meanwhile, countries experiencing conflict or with highly restricted freedoms and weak democratic institutions, occupy the bottom of the index. South Sudan (8), Somalia (9) and Venezuela (10) take the last three spots. Syria (12), Equatorial Guinea (13), Eritrea (13), Libya (13), Yemen (13), Nicaragua (14), Sudan (15) and North Korea (15) complete the list of lowest scorers. In 2024, the Sub-Saharan African region once again registered the lowest average score on the CPI, at just 33/100, with 90% of the countries scoring below 50. Yet amid this very low annual performance, there were African countries that invested in anti-corruption and made remarkable progress. The region’s highest scorers include Seychelles (CPI score: 72), Cabo Verde (62), Botswana (57) and Rwanda (57). The lowest scorers declined further on this year’s CPI: Equatorial Guinea (13), Eritrea (13), Somalia (9) and South Sudan (8).
