Learn Nigeria

The Great Nigeria Book trilogy — a 210,000-word narrative and analytical work — provides the intellectual and evidentiary foundation for the Great Nigeria platform's live tracker modules [^1^]. This Evidence Map documents how every major claim in the trilogy is connected to a live data source, tracker, or evidence repository within the platform ecosystem. The map serves three purposes: (1) it allows readers to verify book claims against current data, (2) it shows how the platform's real-time modules extend the book's static analysis, and (3) it creates an accountability mechanism where platform data quality reflects on book credibility and vice versa [^2^]. The map covers three book volumes — Economy, Governance, and Society — and connects them to 14 live platform modules and 47 integrated data sources [^3^]. Each connection is classified by evidence type (primary data, secondary analysis, expert interview, documentary source) and by update frequency (real-time, daily, weekly, monthly, annual) [^4^].

Nigeria entered 2026 with elevated social tension driven by economic hardship, political contestation, and youth frustration. The memory of the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests — the most widespread anti-government demonstrations since the 2020 #EndSARS movement — continues to shape the protest landscape [^1^]. In Q1 2026, the country experienced approximately 147 recorded protest events, up from 112 in Q1 2025, indicating both sustained grievance and improved civic mobilization capacity [^2^]. This monitor tracks protest activity, social tension indicators, and civic mobilization trends across Nigeria. The analysis uses ACLED protest data, SBM Intelligence polling, Afrobarometer survey data, and GN's own social-media and news-clustering systems. The central finding: **Nigeria's protest wave is structural, not cyclical. It will continue as long as economic conditions remain dire and political responsiveness remains low** [^3^].

Nigeria's diaspora is one of the most dynamic and economically significant in the world. An estimated 17–20 million Nigerians live abroad, concentrated in the UK, US, Canada, UAE, South Africa, and other African countries [^1^]. In 2024, diaspora remittances reached approximately $20.93 billion, making Nigeria the largest remittance recipient in Sub-Saharan Africa and the sixth-largest globally [^2^]. But the diaspora's significance extends far beyond remittances. Diaspora Nigerians are entrepreneurs, investors, professionals, students, and cultural ambassadors. They fund startups, build hospitals, sponsor scholarships, and shape global perceptions of Nigeria [^3^]. The "Japa" wave of 2023–2025 has expanded the diaspora further, with an estimated 500,000–700,000 additional emigrants, primarily young professionals and students [^4^]. This brief assesses the diaspora across five dimensions: **remittance flows, investment and entrepreneurship, skills and human capital, policy engagement, and return migration** [^5^]. The central finding: **Nigeria's diaspora is an underutilized national asset. Current policies facilitate remittances but do little to channel diaspora expertise, investment, and political influence into national development** [^6^].

Nigeria's cost-of-living crisis, while showing some moderation in headline inflation, continues to exact a severe toll on household welfare in early 2026 [^1^]. Headline inflation fell to 15.40% year-on-year in March 2026 (rebased series), down from 24.48% in March 2025, but the absolute price level remains extremely high relative to incomes [^2^]. A family of five in Lagos now requires an estimated NGN 180,000–220,000 per month for basic food, transport, and utilities — far above the national minimum wage of NGN 70,000 per month [^3^][^4^]. This report moves beyond the macro inflation headline to examine the micro reality: what specific goods and services cost, how wages have responded, what coping strategies households employ, and which population segments are most vulnerable. The analysis draws on NBS CPI data, NLC wage surveys, World Bank poverty assessments, SBM Intelligence household polling, and Great Nigeria's own price-tracking network [^5^][^6^][^7^][^8^].

Nigeria's foreign exchange market entered May 2026 with more orderly official-market conditions than during the most volatile phases of the 2023–2025 adjustment, but the system remains sensitive to oil prices, portfolio flows, reserves dynamics, inflation expectations, and policy credibility. The CBN's NFEM data for April 7–30, 2026 show a volume-weighted average rate of approximately NGN 1,359.16/US$ across 18 listed trading days [^1^]. The latest listed observation was NGN 1,374.94/US$ on April 30 [^1^]. The rate traded in a band of NGN 1,342.30 to NGN 1,386.66 — far narrower than the double-digit monthly swings of 2024 [^1^]. External reserves stood at approximately US$48.37 billion on April 29, 2026, down roughly US$871 million from US$49.24 billion on March 31 [^2^]. The decline reflects debt service, intervention activity, and valuation effects rather than crisis conditions, but the direction warrants monitoring. Liquid reserves were approximately US$47.64 billion [^2^]. The CBN cut the MPR to 26.5% in February 2026, signaling cautious easing [^3^]. The next MPC meeting on May 19–20, 2026 will be pivotal for the FX outlook [^4^]. The World Bank describes Nigeria's external position as strengthened, citing reserves, FX-market unification, and lower volatility since 2024 [^5^]. The IMF projects 2026 GDP growth of 4.1% and inflation of 16.0% [^6^].

Nigeria enters May 2026 with a macroeconomic story that is simultaneously improving and fragile. The economy is growing faster than it did in 2024, inflation is far lower than the peaks of 2024–2025, and the naira has appreciated year-to-date against the US dollar. Yet the recovery is uneven, and fresh headwinds—especially from the Middle East conflict and domestic fiscal pressures—are testing the durability of reform gains. The latest official national accounts from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show real GDP growth of 4.07% year-on-year in Q4 2025 and 3.87% for full-year 2025 [^1^]. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its April 2026 World Economic Outlook, projects Nigeria's 2026 real GDP growth at 4.1%, down from a 4.4% forecast in January, citing war-related fuel and shipping costs [^2^]. The World Bank's April 2026 Africa Economic Update similarly downgraded its 2026 outlook to 4.1% and expects inflation to moderate from an average of 23% in 2025 to 14.9% in 2026 [^3^]. Inflation has moderated substantially under the rebased Consumer Price Index (CPI), but it has not disappeared. The NBS March 2026 CPI report—the latest available as of early May—shows headline inflation at 15.38% year-on-year, up from 15.06% in February 2026 [^4^]. The month-on-month headline rate surged to 4.18%, a sharp reminder that annual disinflation can coexist with acute monthly price pressure [^4^]. Food inflation stood at 14.31% year-on-year, while core inflation reached 16.21% [^4^]. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cut the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 50 basis points to 26.5% at its February 23–24, 2026 meeting, retaining the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) at 45.0% for deposit money banks [^5^]. The next MPC meeting is scheduled for May 19–20, 2026; as of this report's publication date, the outcome had not yet been announced. Externally, gross official reserves declined from a 13-year high of $50.45 billion in February 2026 to approximately $48.36 billion by Apr

Nigeria possesses one of Africa's most progressive access-to-information statutes, yet operational readiness remains the central governance deficit of 2026. The Freedom of Information Act, 2011 (FOIA) establishes a legal right to request public records, mandates proactive disclosure by all public institutions, and requires annual compliance reporting to the Attorney-General of the Federation [^1^][^2^]. The Attorney-General's Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 2011 (2013) clarify institutional duties: designation of senior FOI officials, maintenance of FOI units, provision of help lines or online assistance, review of records procedures, liaison with the Attorney-General, preparation of record maps, publication of proactive disclosures, and regular staff training [^3^]. The 2026 baseline is therefore not a question of whether Nigeria has an access-to-information law. It does. The decisive question is whether public institutions are operationally ready to comply. Public evidence shows deeply uneven readiness: some agencies maintain FOI portals and publish disclosure pages, while the majority submit late or no annual reports, delay responses beyond the statutory seven-day timeline, lack dedicated budgets, and maintain weak records-management systems [^4^][^5^]. The Open Government Partnership's April 2026 Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Results Report for Nigeria 2023-2025 provides an authoritative benchmark. It reports that FOI implementation efforts trained and sensitised public officials and institutions, but also found significant barriers: late responses, weak record-keeping, reluctance to create FOI portals, a prevailing secrecy culture, low citizen awareness, limited financial provision, and insufficient sanctions for annual-report non-compliance [^6^]. The IRM cited Ministry of Justice annual FOI reports showing improvement in reporting institutions from 91 to 143 and processed requests from 65 to 102, while noti

The Nigeria Progress Index (NPI) is a Go-based civic-technology platform for tracking government service delivery and capital projects. The NPI codebase exists at /root/npi-platform with a functional Go backend and a minimal Next.js frontend. As of this report, the backend API is running on localhost:8000, passes health checks, registers users, and serves empty project/search results because no OCDS data has been synced and only 6 of 37 states are seeded. There is no public /npi route on greatnigeria.net — the platform is not wired into the live site. No Odoo-side gn_npi module exists. Integration Readiness Score: 2.4 / 5.0 — indicating the backend structure is solid, but critical gaps block production deployment and Odoo integration.