More than 50 percent of drugs sold in drugstores in Nigeria in the 1990s were counterfeit, the World Bank said in a report.

In its Africa Development Indicators 2010 report, released at the weekend, the bank said "Quite corruption" is undermining development in Africa, including Nigeria.

Quiet corruption, according to the bank, is the failure of public servants to deliver goods or services paid for by governments.

This is pervasive and widespread across Africa and is having a disproportionate effect on the poor, with long-term consequences for development, according to the report.

The report said that the number of people living with less than $2 a day in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has nearly doubled since 1981 from 292 million to about 555 million in 2005.

"Every day thousands of people, many of them children, still die from preventable diseases. Aids and malaria are still ravaging the Africa continent, especially SSA," the report added.

The new study shifted from the usual focus on an exchange of money - bribes to powerful political designees or kickbacks to public officials but focused on how "quiet corruption" leads to an increasingly negative expectation of service delivery systems, causing families to ignore the system.

According to the Chief Economist for the World Bank, Africa Region, Shanta Devarajan, tackling quiet corruption will require a combination of strong and committed leadership, policies and institutions at the sectoral level, and increased accountability and participation by citizens.



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