State: Kogi

Kogi State sits at Nigeria’s geographic middle, with Lokoja as its capital, a town that sits right where the Niger and Benue Rivers meet. It was created on 27 August 1991, pieced together from parts of Benue, Niger, and Kwara states.

No Nigerian state borders more neighbors than Kogi. It touches Ekiti and Kwara to the west, FCT Abuja to the north, Nasarawa to the northeast, Niger to the northwest, Edo and Ondo to the southwest, Anambra and Enugu to the southeast, and Benue to the east.

The Igala, Ebira, and Okun peoples form the largest groups, alongside Nupe, Yoruba, Gbagyi, and Bassa communities spread across the state’s many local government areas.

Agriculture leads the economy, with coffee, cocoa, palm oil, cashews, groundnuts, yam, and rice all grown across the state. Heavy industry adds another layer, anchored by the Ajaokuta Steel Company and the Obajana Cement Factory, one of Africa’s largest cement plants.

The confluence where the Niger and Benue Rivers merge is Kogi’s best known landmark, visible clearly from Mount Patti, the hill overlooking Lokoja where the name Nigeria was reportedly first coined. Lord Lugard’s old residence still stands nearby as a reminder of the town’s colonial administrative past.

Kogi has produced footballer Shola Ameobi, Olympic sprinter Sunday Bada, actresses Mercy Johnson and Halima Abubakar, musician Darey, and Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot.