ABSTRACT
The impact of corruption on Africa’s economic growth and development cannot be emphasised enough. Corruption has contributed to poverty on the continent, affected infrastructural development on the continent, severely affected education and health facilities and has contributed to unemployment amongst others. This chapter looks at such impact of corruption on Africa’s development through case studies. Countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Ghana are the case studies used to illustrate this point in the book. They were chosen because some of these countries are some of the large economies and better-performing economies on the continent pre-COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. The chapter started by looking at why corruption was pervasive in Africa. Reasons such as the personalisation of public office for personal gain, mismanagement of public resources without any sanctions, nepotism, poor political culture to name a few has been given as the cause. The impact of corruption on these countries was looked at from political, economic and social angles. The chapter ends by arguing that if Africa has to attain its development, it must fight to root out corruption. It has no choice.
