A new index by a global anti-corruption watchdog released Wednesday, saw Rwanda tie with Mauritius to become the 3rd least corrupt country in Sub Sahara Africa.

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International, ranked Rwanda 50th least corrupt country in the world, whilst retaining the same 54 per cent score.

The survey sampled 174 countries globally, up from the 168 that were sampled last year.

In Sub Saharan Africa, Rwanda came after Botswana, Cape Verde and Mauritius, while on the global scale, Denmark and New Zealand emerged the least corrupt countries, after they both scored 90 per cent.

The CPI tackles public perceptions for corruption in the public sector.

In the East African Community, Rwanda once again scored best followed by Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi, in that order.

Speaking at the launch of the index in Kigali, Marie-Immaculée Ingabire, the chairperson of Transparency International Rwanda commended government for maintaining the fight against graft as a top priority.

"Keeping the same score would mean that we kept the same effort in the fight against corruption. We recognize that the fight against corruption was kept on the top of government priorities,” said Ingabire.

She however said that for maximum results, citizens must come on board and report corruption incidences mainly in the public sector, for appropriate measures to be taken.

Ingabire recommended more efforts to mobilise the citizenry to know what they are entitled to, and come up to report in case anyone seeks any form of inducement to offer a public service.

She said that if the citizens are mobilized, there is no doubt that the government commitment to achieve zero corruption will be met.

Meanwhile, in this latest ranking, the Middle East had the highest corruption incidence.