Ghana has scored an average mark of 43 out of 100 on the 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International.

Ghana was also ranked 75 out of 180 countries/territories included in this year’s index. This CPI score indicates that Ghana gained 2 points compared to its 2019 score of 41.

Ghana’s score also exceeds the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) average score of 32 and is equal to the global average score of 43. The TI 2020 CPI scores and ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.

The CPI draws upon 13 data sources which capture the assessment of experts and business executives on a number of corrupt behaviours in the public sector. It uses a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Ghana’s score of 43 placed her 10th in SSA. Seychelles is ranked highest with 66 points followed by Botswana with 60, Cabo Verde with 58, Rwanda with 54, and Mauritius scored 53 as the top five countries in SSA.

Ghana also performed better than 39 other SSA countries including Benin, Lesotho, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia, etc.

Denmark and New Zealand topped with 88 points each. Syria, Somalia, and South Sudan are at the bottom with 14, 12, and 12 points respectively. The highest-scoring region is Western Europe and the European Union with an average score of 66, while the lowest scoring region is Sub-Saharan Africa with an average score of 32.

Since 2012, the earliest point of comparison in the current CPI methodology, twenty-six (26) countries have significantly improved their CPI scores, including Ecuador (39), Greece (50), Guyana (41), Myanmar (28), and South Korea (61). Twenty-two countries significantly decreased their scores, including Bosnia & Herzegovina (35), Guatemala (25), Lebanon (25), Malawi (30), Malta (53), and Poland (56).

Nearly half of countries have been stagnant on the index for almost a decade, indicating stalled government efforts to tackle the root causes of corruption. More than two-thirds of countries scored below 50.