Country

Summary

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is situated in the West African region and lies between longitudes 3 degrees and 14 degrees; and latitudes 4 degrees and 140 degrees. The Country has a land mass of 923,768 sq kilometres. It is bordered to the north by the Republics of Niger and T`chad. It shares border to the West with the Republic of Benin, and with Cameroon to the East, right down to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which form the Southern limits of the Nigerian Territory. Nigeria is blessed with abundance of land good for agriculture, industrial and commercial activities. In the same vein, about 800km of coastline provides the country adequate potential of maritime power.  Nigeria as a federation is comprised of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital Abuja is located. Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960. The official language is English, while Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are the major local languages. The national currency is the Naira (N). Nigeria is often referred to as the Giant of Africa, owing to its large population of about 203,183,013 million inhabitants. It is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous in the world. Nigeria has the third largest youth population in the world after India and China, with more than 90 million of its population under the age of eighteen. The IMF 2020 estimates listed Nigeria as the 24^th largest economy with more than $500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and purchasing power parity respectively.