Nigeria Travel Services - Sunrise Tours & Safaris

Overview

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa.

Information on Nigeria Travel

President: Mohamud Buhari

Land area: 351,649 sq mi (910,771 sq km); total area: 356,667 sq mi (923,768 sq km)

Population (2014 est.): 177,155,754 (growth rate: 2.47%); birth rate: 38.03/1000; infant mortality rate: 74.09/1000; life expectancy: 52.62

Capital (2011 est.): Abuja, 2.153 million

Largest cities: Lagos (2011 est.), 11.223 million; Kano, 3.375 million; Ibadan, 2.949; Port Harcourt 1.894 million; Kaduna, 1.524 million

Currency: Naira

Visa

Visitors to Nigeria require a visa unless they come from one of the visa exempt countries. All visitors must hold a passport valid for 6 months.

Recent visitors to Nigeria are refused entry to Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, Ivory Coast, Mongolia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe and South Africa due to Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa.

Geography

Nigeria, one-third larger than Texas and the most populous country in Africa, is situated on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. Its neighbors are Benin, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad. The lower course of the Niger River flows south through the western part of the country into the Gulf of Guinea. Swamps and mangrove forests border the southern coast; inland are hardwood forests.

History

The first inhabitants of what is now Nigeria were thought to have been the Nok people (500 BC –c. AD 200). The Kanuri, Hausa, and Fulani peoples subsequently migrated there.

Islam was introduced in the 13th century, and the empire of Kanem controlled the area from the end of the 11th century to the 14th.

The Fulani empire ruled the region from the beginning of the 19th century until the British annexed Lagos in 1851 and seized control of the rest of the region by 1886.

It formally became the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914. During World War I, native troops of the West African frontier force joined with French forces to defeat the German garrison in Cameroon.