Visa requirements for Nigerian citizens

Nigerian citizens need a Schengen visa, which covers all member states for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Nigeria and 18 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

No country asks holders of the Nigerian passport for a visa beforehand while its own citizens enter Nigeria without one.

The reverse holds for 23 countries: holders of the Nigerian passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Nigeria (Barbados, Burundi, Cambodia, Comoros, Djibouti and 18 others).

110 countries ask holders of the Nigerian passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 45 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Nigeria.

65 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Nigeria, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Nigeria, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Ghana (3), Cameroon (2) and Equatorial Guinea (2).

The United States refused 57% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Nigeria in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 157 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 39 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Schengen consulates in Nigeria refused 48% of short-stay visa applications in 2025 (all Schengen consulates worldwide: 15%). Among the 74 countries where they received at least 10,000 applications, that is the 5th highest rate. The figure counts every nationality applying there, not only citizens.

Visa-free travel with the Nigerian passport

By continent, the Nigerian passport is visa-free in 19 countries in Africa, 4 countries in Oceania and 3 countries in the Americas. The longest visa-free stays for Nigerian citizens are allowed in Barbados (180 days), Dominica (180 days), Fiji (120 days), Vanuatu (120 days), Benin (90 days) and Ivory Coast (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Nigerian citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Iran, Lebanon, Madagascar and 7 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Nigerian citizens enter Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bolivia and 41 others. Saint Kitts and Nevis asks instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Nigeria’s neighbours

Chad, Niger, Benin and Cameroon admit Nigerian citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Beninese passport ranks 141st (60 destinations), the Nigerien passport ranks 156th (54 destinations), the Chadian passport ranks 162nd (51 destinations) and the Cameroonian passport ranks 173rd (47 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 18 can enter visa-free and 180 need an e-Visa for Nigeria.