Nigeria: good to know
The general-information half of trip planning: how expensive Nigeria feels, what is considered polite, what is not, and the everyday practicalities - alongside our 64 written places.
Exuberant, warm and fast-talking; greetings, respect for elders and a good story carry every interaction.
✓ Considered polite
- Greet before anything else - elders first, with Sir, Ma, Auntie or Uncle rather than first names
- Use your right hand to eat, pass and receive things
- Accept food or a drink when offered - hospitality is generous and refusal can disappoint
- Dress smartly - Nigerians take appearance seriously and it earns respect
✗ Better avoided
- Walk away after agreeing a price at the market - a done deal is a done deal
- Rush greetings or skip small talk before getting to the point
- Compare Nigerian jollof rice to any other country's - the rivalry is taken seriously
- Use your left hand to give or receive anything
Worth knowing
- Cash naira covers markets, street food and buses; cards and bank-transfer payments are everywhere in cities
- Sunday morning is church time across the south; Friday prayers shape the rhythm in the north
- Haggling can halve an opening price, but bread and other fixed-price staples are not negotiable
- Social events run on flexible time - arriving exactly on the hour may make you the first guest
Plugs and voltage: Wikipedia, «Mains electricity by country» (after the IEC World Plugs list), read 15 October 2026.
Some links on this page are Amazon affiliate links - if you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Keep planning
Customs are living things - regions differ, cities relax, generations shift. Take these notes as a friendly head start, watch what locals do, and when in doubt a smile and a greeting in the local language cover almost everything.