Check Out These Fascinating and Interesting Facts About Nigeria

The Federal Republic of Nigeria, commonly referred to as Nigeria is located in the western part of the African continent and is home to a total of 36 states with diverse cultures and ethnicity.

With a population of over 200 million citizens, Nigeria is regarded as the most populous country in Africa, and the seventh most populated country in the world, home to over 213 million people.
As a result, when hearing of Nigeria, people would automatically imagine a big city filled with people and noise. But this is not always the case. Nigeria could be considered as one of the fastest developing countries in the African continent and boasts of some features that makes them a very unique country in the global arena.

So, here, we would be checking out a compilation of some of the most interesting and fascinating facts about the country in question, Nigeria.

1. NIGERIA IS THE BIGGEST AND LARGEST PRODUCER OF OIL AND GAS IN AFRICA.

For the first time in her history, Nigeria discovered oil in commercial quantities in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta region. And years later, during the 1970s, Nigeria’s oil profit was highest, marking its status as the wealthiest country in Africa. They are the largest producing African country in terms of natural gas, oil, and petroleum.  Nigeria produce an average of 2.5 million barrels of crude oil each day. The production of oil is now the major backbone of the Nigerian economy currently.

2. NOLLYWOOD IS BIGGER THAN HOLLYWOOD.

Nigerian movie industry, Nollywood is considered to be bigger than the American movie industry, Hollywood. This is due to the fact that Nollywood or the Nigerian movie industry produces 200 movies each week and approximately 10,000 movies every year. This number of productions makes the Nigerian movie industry one of the biggest in the world and second only to the Indian movie industry, Bollywood.

3.  NIGERIA IS HOME TO OVER 250 ETHNIC GROUPS.

With over 250 ethnic groups found in the country, Nigeria is the most culturally diverse country in Africa and amongst the most diverse in the world.
There are lots of variations in the country in terms of Language, ethnicity religion and culture.
The largest ethnic tribes in the country are the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo.

4.  NIGERIA HAS ONE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST DIVERSITY OF BUTTERFLIES

In terms of animal life, Nigeria contributes to the world’s largest diversities of butterflies.
Currently, there are more than 1000 documented butterfly species in the country’s atmosphere the numbers are not dwindling due to the new butterfly species that are still being discovered there.

 

5. MORE THAN 500 INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES ARE SPOKEN IN NIGERIA.

Due to the fact that Nigeria was once a former colony of Britain, English is the official language of the nation.

But In the rural parts of the country, especially in the ghettos and the ‘trenches’ part of the nation, the local indigenous languages are mostly used for day to day conversations.

The most commonly used languages are Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Tiv, Ibibio and Kanuri. Apart from these languages , there are also about 500 indigenous languages being spoken throughout the country.