The Federal Republic of Nigeria

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and the world’s sixth most populous.

Nigeria was the first African nation to win Olympic men’s football gold, at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Nigeria is home to Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, with an estimated net worth of $28.5 Bn as of 2026. He is the founder of Dangote Cement, one of Africa’s largest cement producers.

The Nok culture of central Nigeria (about 1500 BCE to 1 BCE) made life-sized terracotta heads and figures. They are regarded as the earliest large-scale figurative art in continental Africa outside Egypt.

Nigeria has one of the world’s highest birth rates. It is estimated that an average of 4.3 children are born per woman.

Nigeria has Africa’s largest oil refinery. The Dangote Refinery in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, reported reaching its full capacity of 650,000 barrels a day in February 2026.

Wole Soyinka was the first Black African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.

Nigeria is home to about 250 ethnic groups and over 500 languages.

Nigeria takes its name from the Niger River that flows through the west of the country to the Atlantic Ocean.

Benin City (in present-day Edo State) was the center of the Benin Kingdom, famous for the internationally recognized “Benin Bronzes” created from the 15th century onward.

Nigeria has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites. They are the Sukur Cultural Landscape in Adamawa State (inscribed 1999) and the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove in Osun State (2005).

The country is the largest producer of cassava in the world.