Nigeria Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

serious overpopulation and rapid urbanization have led to numerous environmental problems; urban air and water pollution; rapid deforestation; soil degradation; loss of arable land; oil pollution - water, air, and soil have suffered serious damage from oil spills

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: Tropical Timber 2006

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 48.73 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 120.37 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 143.99 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

varies; equatorial in south, tropical in center, arid in north

Land use

agricultural land: 78% (2018 est.)

arable land: 37.3% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 7.4% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 33.3% (2018 est.)

forest: 9.5% (2018 est.)

other: 12.5% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 54.3% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 3.92% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 1.02% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: very high (2020)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever

water contact diseases: leptospirosis and schistosomiasis

animal contact diseases: rabies

respiratory diseases: meningococcal meningitis

aerosolized dust or soil contact diseases: Lassa fever

note 1: on 4 May 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Travel Health Notice for a Yellow Fever outbreak in Nigeria; a large, ongoing outbreak of yellow fever in Nigeria began in September 2017; the outbreak is now spread throughout the country with the Nigerian Ministry of Health reporting cases of the disease in multiple states (Bauchi, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, and Enugu); the CDC recommends travelers going to Nigeria should receive vaccination against yellow fever at least 10 days before travel and should take steps to prevent mosquito bites while there; those never vaccinated against yellow fever should avoid travel to Nigeria during the outbreak

note 2: widespread ongoing transmission of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is occurring throughout Nigeria; as of 9 December 2022, Nigeria has reported a total of 266,283 cases of COVID-19 or 129.17 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population with a total of 3,155 cumulative deaths or a rate of 1.53 cumulative death per 100,000 population; as of 13 November 2022, 29.28% of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine
note 3: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Nigeria is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine

Food insecurity

widespread lack of access: due to persistent civil conflict in the northern areas, localized shortfalls in cereal production, and high food prices - according to the latest analysis, about 19.45 million people were projected to be in need of humanitarian food assistance between June and August 2022, owing to the deterioration of security conditions and conflicts in northern states, localized shortfalls in staple food production, high food prices and reduced incomes;as of September 2022, flood affected about 190,000 people in areas already affected by high levels of food insecurity, malnutrition and violence in northeastern states (2022)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 27,614,830 tons (2009 est.)

Major lakes (area sq km)

fresh water lake(s): Lake Chad (endorheic lake shared with Niger, Chad, and Cameroon) - 10,360-25,900 sq km
note - area varies by season and year to year

Major rivers (by length in km)

Niger river mouth (shared with Guinea [s], Mali, Benin, and Niger) - 4,200 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: Niger (2,261,741 sq km)
Internal (endorheic basin) drainage: Lake Chad (2,497,738 sq km)

Major aquifers

Lake Chad Basin, Lullemeden-Irhazer Aquifer System

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 5 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 1.965 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 5.51 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

286.2 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Nigeria on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Nigeria 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Nigeria 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.