When Transparency International releases its annual Corruption Perception Index most of the media focus on the most corrupt countries in Africa neglecting countries that are making positive strides in providing more transparent civil and commercial environments.

Well here at ClickAfrique we turn this approach on it’s head and produce the top ten list of the most transparent countries in Africa – Africa’s least corrupt countries. Analysis of the List indicates there is evidence of a correlation between the economic position of the countries and their level of transparency as most of the countries on the list are some of the strongest and diverse economies in Africa. In the 2008 list Botswana retains its title as Africa’s most transparent country and the world’s 38th transparent country. Botswana also has pride of place of one of the most stable economies in Africa.

South Africa ranked second in Africa in the list in 2007 slipped on both the world and African rankings. On the African ranking it’s now fourth behind Cape Verde and Mauritius who both posted improvements of their global ranking with Cape Verde rising from 49th to 47th while Mauritius rose dramatically from 53rd to 41st.

New entrants to the top ten list in 2008 include Burkina Faso and Swaziland while Senegal drops out.

An interesting note is that the top four African countries on the transparency list are less corrupt than G8 member Italy as well as its fellow EU member Greece who rank 55th and 57th respectively in the global 2008 index.

The top ten transparent countries in Africa