Last updated on November 3rd, 2022 at 01:10 pm
Nigeria is made up of 36 states. The states are politically and geographically divided into six geo-political zones. Worthy of note is that the states have unique two-letter abbreviations associated with each of them.
For instance, there are some online forms that only use Nigeria’s state abbreviations, you have the know them to know the one that is associated with your state.
For instance, LA is associated with Lagos state; OS is for Osun State; OY is for Oyo State; SO is applicable to Sokoto State, and RI is for Rivers state.
Apart from the states’ abbreviations, Nigeria’s two-letter abbreviation is NG, which is known as its international abbreviation, and all countries have one.
Nigerian States Abbreviations
Below is the alphabetical order of states in Nigeria and the 2-letter associated with them, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja:
| States | Two-letter Abbreviations | Capital |
| Abia | AB | Umuhia |
| Adamawa | AD | Yola |
| Akwa Ibom | AK | Uyo |
| Anambra | AN | Awka |
| Bauchi | BA | Bauchi |
| Bayelsa | BY | Yenagoa |
| Benue | BE | Makurdi |
| Borno | BO | Maiduguri |
| Cross River | CR | Calabar |
| Delta | DE | Asaba |
| Ebonyi | EB | Abakaliki |
| Edo | ED | Benin City |
| Ekiti | EK | Ado-Ekiti |
| Enugu | EN | Enugu |
| Gombe | GO | Gombe |
| Imo | IM | Owerri |
| Jigawa | JI | Dutse |
| Kaduna | KD | Kaduna |
| Kano | KN | Kano |
| Katsina | KT | Katsina |
| Kebbi | KE | Birnin Kebbi |
| Kogi | KO | Lokoja |
| Kwara | KW | Ilorin |
| Lagos | LA | Ikeja |
| Nasarawa | NA | Lafia |
| Niger | NI | Minna |
| Ogun | OG | Abeokuta |
| Ondo | ON | Akure |
| Osun | OS | Osogbo |
| Oyo | OY | Ibadan |
| Plateau | PL | Jos |
| Rivers | RI | Port Harcourt |
| Sokoto | SO | Sokoto |
| Taraba | TA | Jalingo |
| Yobe | YO | Damaturu |
| Zamfara | ZA | Gusau |
| Federal Capital Territory | FC | Abuja |
The above states are divided into six geo-political zones by the regime of Gen. Sani Abacha (late). The zones are:
- North Central: BE, KO, KW, NA, NI, PL, FC
- North East: BO, GO, AD, YO, BA, TA
- North West: JI, KD, KN, KT, KE, SO, ZA
- South: DE, AK, ED, BY, CR, RI
- South East: EB, AB, AN, IM, EN
- South West: OS, EK, LA, ON, OY, OG