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Corruption at any step in a financial system jeopardizes financial inclusion. Globally, roughly 1 in 4 people paid a bribe to a government employee or institution in the last year. That’s the big finding from the Global Corruption Barometer 2013, the latest in Transparency International’s annual public opinion survey on corruption. This year’s survey polled more than 114,000 people in 117 countries on their experience with bribes, their perceptions of corruption across institution types, and their beliefs on the potential for ordinary people to fight corruption.

Percentage of respondents per country/territory who paid a bribe to a government employee or institution in the last year.

For many, especially those living on less than two dollars a day, a bribe added to the cost of a service can determine if a service is a possibility – this includes basic financial services. Of the countries included in the Barometer, it was found that 7 out of the 9 countries with the highest bribery rates were in sub-Saharan Africa. Sierra Leone recorded the highest rate with 81 percent of polled individuals reporting that they had paid a bribe during the past year, followed by Liberia, Yemen, and Kenya, with 75, 74, and 70 percent, respectively. According to Global Findex data, access to and usage of formal financial services in sub-Saharan Africa is among the lowest in the world.

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