Nairobi — Seychelles has emerged as Africa's top performer in the newly released 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), scoring 72 out of 100.

The report by Transparency International ranks Seychelles 18th globally out of 180 countries, making it the nation with the largest improvement worldwide, gaining 20 points since 2012.

Transparency International attributes Seychelles' high ranking to its active prosecution of corruption cases and improved transparency in financial ownership.

"The state has been actively prosecuting high-profile corruption cases and has taken steps to improve beneficial ownership transparency and strengthen information exchange among relevant law enforcement institutions," the report states.

Seychelles was followed by Cape Verde, which scored 62, while Rwanda and Botswana tied with 57 points each.

In East Africa, Kenya scored 32 out of 100, rankings 121st globally.

Neighboring Uganda ranked 140th with 26 points, while Tanzania fared better at 82nd place with a score of 41.

The report indicated that the Sub-Saharan African region recorded the lowest average CPI score, standing at just 33 out of 100, with 90% of countries scoring below 50.

Among the lowest-ranked nations were, Equatorial Guinea at 13 points, Eritrea (13), Somalia (9) and South Sudan (8).

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is the leading global indicator of public sector corruption, providing an annual comparative snapshot of 180 countries and territories.

The index for 2024 is calculated using data from 13 external sources.

The 2024 CPI edition assesses how countries have responded to corruption over time, reviewing progress and failures in the past year, while focusing particularly on how corruption is undermining climate action around the world

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).

Transparency International stated that while 32 countries have significantly reduced their corruption levels since 2012, there's still a huge amount of work to be done--148 countries have stayed stagnant or gotten worse during the same period.

The global average of 43 has also stood still for years, while over two-thirds of countries score below 50