Zimbabwe has emerged as one of the weaker performers on corruption control in Africa, scoring 22.5 out of 100 on the World Bank’s 2024 Control of Corruption indicator, well below the continent’s stronger performers and raising questions about the country’s ability to attract investment and protect public resources.

The figures, highlighted by economist Lethukuthula Khozah, place Zimbabwe below South Africa at 44.0, Zambia at 38.6, Botswana at 60.6 and Rwanda at 60.5, while Seychelles leads the countries shown at 72.8, followed by Cabo Verde at 66.9.

At the other end of the scale, the Democratic Republic of Congo scored 17.2, Somalia 11.7 and South Sudan just 6.1.

Khozah said the figures should not be treated as merely a narrow governance statistic because corruption directly affects the performance of economies.

“Africa’s corruption problem remains one of the biggest constraints on the continent’s economic progress,” Khozah said.

He said the disparity in scores showed how uneven institutional performance remains across African economies.

“The latest World Bank Control of Corruption scores show just how uneven governance is across Africa,” he said.

The World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) measure six broad areas of governance, including government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption.

The corruption indicator captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is used for private gain, including petty and grand corruption, as well as the capture of the state by elites and private interests.

The 2025 WGI release covers data through 2024 and uses perceptions drawn from 35 cross-country sources, including household and firm surveys and expert assessments. The World Bank cautions that the scores are broad comparative measures and should not be treated as a complete diagnosis of country-specific governance problems.

For Zimbabwe, the 22.5 score comes as the Government seeks to attract more private capital into mining, manufacturing, infrastructure and tourism while presenting the country as a more business-friendly investment destination.

Khozah argued that corruption directly undermines that ambition.

“Corruption is not just a governance problem. It is an economic problem. It raises the cost of doing business, discourages investment, weakens public institutions, distorts competition and diverts resources away from productive investment.”

The World Bank’s own assessment of Zimbabwe’s business environment has identified several related institutional weaknesses, including high and regressive compliance costs, limited transparency, continued reliance on manual processes and overlapping mandates among Government agencies.

The Bank says these factors create additional costs for businesses and can weaken the effectiveness of regulation.

A country can offer mineral resources, tax incentives and investment licences, but weak institutions can still increase the cost and uncertainty of doing business if companies face opaque procedures, inconsistent enforcement or preferential treatment.

Zimbabwe’s 22.5 score is significantly below neighbouring Botswana’s 60.6 and South Africa’s 44.0, while Zambia scores 38.6 and Mozambique 26.4.

The gap with Rwanda is even wider. Rwanda scored 60.5, while Seychelles recorded 72.8, demonstrating that African countries are operating under very different institutional conditions.

Khozah said the continent’s natural and demographic advantages could generate much greater economic growth if institutional weaknesses were addressed.

“Africa has the resources, population and markets to achieve much more. But without stronger institutions and better control of corruption, too much of the continent’s potential will continue to leak away.”

For Zimbabwe, the issue is particularly important as the Government seeks to convert macroeconomic stabilisation into sustained private investment and job creation.

The World Bank has previously argued that improving the business environment is necessary to unlock private-sector investment and employment growth.