Game Reserves in Nigeria and Their Location, by State

A game reserve in Nigeria belongs to a state government. A national park belongs to the federal government and is run by the National Park Service. The two names get mixed up all the time, and the earlier version of this page did it too: seven of its nine “game reserves” were national parks.

The best-known game reserve is Yankari, in Bauchi State. The rest are set out by state further down, from Stubbs Creek in Akwa Ibom to Kwiambana in Zamfara. The national parks come first, because they are the places with a park office you can ring.

National park or game reserve

The National Park Service says on its own website that national parks are on the Exclusive Legislative List of the Constitution, so the federal government controls and manages them. The Service is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Environment, and each park has its own conservator.

Game reserves sit with the states. The Ministry’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan counts 32 of them, run by “State Governments and a few managed by communities”, and says only 60% are under any level of management.

A place can move from one group to the other. Kainji Lake National Park was made by joining the Borgu and Zugurma game reserves. Yankari went the other way: it was a national park until June 2006, when the Service handed it back at Bauchi State’s request.

National parks in Nigeria

These are the seven long-established parks, with the figures the National Park Service publishes for each.

The Service’s pages give two sizes for Kainji Lake: 5,340.82 sq km on the park’s own page and 5,382 in the summary table. What each park is known for, again from the Service unless we say otherwise:

• Gashaka Gumti is the largest. It is mountain country on the Cameroon border and holds Chappal Waddi, given as Nigeria’s highest peak at 2,419 metres. Chimpanzees are on its species list.
• Kainji Lake was the first national park, set up by decree in 1979. Its two sectors, Borgu and Zugurma, do not touch. The main visitor base is Oli Camp.
• Cross River is rainforest in two blocks, Oban and Okwangwo. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which has worked in Okwangwo under an agreement with the Service since 2011, says that Okwangwo and Takamanda National Park across the border in Cameroon are together the main stronghold of the Cross River gorilla.
• Old Oyo takes its name from the ruins of Oyo-Ile, capital of the old Oyo Empire, which lie inside the park.
• Chad Basin is three separate sectors. One of them holds the Dagona Waterfowl Sanctuary in Yobe, a wintering site for migrant birds.
• Kamuku is savannah woodland around Birnin Gwari. The western hartebeest is its star species, and 177 kinds of bird are recorded there.
• Okomu is the smallest, a block of rainforest 38 km from Benin City. It is home to the white-throated monkey and has a tree house the Service puts at 140 feet.

Two of the seven are co-managed with Africa Nature Investors (ANI), a Nigerian non-profit: Gashaka Gumti under a 30-year agreement signed in November 2017, and Okomu under one signed in May 2022. ANI says on its Gashaka Gumti page that it is still piloting tourism there and that the park is not yet fully ready for visitors.

The ten new national parks

The official count is now 17. President Muhammadu Buhari approved ten more national parks, the Minister of Environment announced them in December 2020, and the Senate and House of Representatives agreed to the declaration order in March 2023. All ten were existing forest or game reserves in the states.

• Allawa, Niger State
• Apoi, Bayelsa State
• Edumenum, Bayelsa State
• Falgore, Kano State
• Hadejia Wetland, Jigawa State (the House motion names the reserve as Baturiya Wetland Game Reserve)
• Kampe, Kwara State
• Kogo, Katsina State
• Marhai, Nasarawa State
• Oba Hill, Osun State
• Pandam, Plateau State

They are at different stages. The Service took over Kampe from Kwara State at a ceremony in Ilorin on 4 February 2025, and its contact page names a conservator for Marhai, Hadejia Wetland, Pandam, Kampe and Kogo. Most of its website still speaks of seven parks, and it publishes no visitor information for any of the ten. For now they are names on a list.

Game reserves by state

No official website lists every game reserve with a contact. The fullest federal list we found is a table in the Ministry’s Fourth National Biodiversity Report, filed with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010. To it we have added the reserves named by the National Park Service, the House of Representatives motion and WCS.

Read the list with care. The 2010 table is older than its date: it files Udi/Nsukka under Anambra State, though Enugu State lists both as its own local governments, and it still has Upper Ogun, which the Service says became part of Old Oyo National Park. We left those two out.

A name in the table also does not mean a gate, a guide or a place to sleep. Gilli-Gilli, for one, is described by ANI as a forest reserve it now runs under a 50-year concession from Edo State. Kwiambana turns up on the Service’s pages only as the reserve across the River Mariga from Kamuku National Park.

Yankari Game Reserve

Yankari is in Bauchi State, 110 km from Bauchi town by the state government’s figure, and covers 2,244 sq km. It was created as a game reserve in 1956. The Service says it became a national park in 1992 and WCS says 1991. Both agree it went back to the state in 2006, though Bauchi’s own website still calls it Yankari National Park in places.

WCS has co-managed Yankari with the state since 2014 and is responsible for the rangers. On its Yankari page it says the reserve holds the largest surviving elephant population in Nigeria, which it estimates at 100 to 150 animals, along with lions, buffalo, hippopotamus, roan and hartebeest.

Bauchi State says the animals are easiest to watch between November and May, when the dry season draws them to the Gaji River. It promotes the reserve together with the Wikki warm spring.

We could not find a working official booking website for Yankari, so this page gives no fees, opening hours or phone number for it. The Bauchi State Government owns the reserve and is the body to ask.

Two sanctuaries in Cross River

Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary was set up in 2000 and is managed by the Cross River State Forestry Commission. WCS, which supports the rangers, describes about 100 sq km of forest with Cross River gorillas, chimpanzees and drills, and a roost of migrant swallows on its western side.

The Mbe Mountains next door have no formal status at all. WCS says the nine surrounding communities own the land and have managed it since 2007 through their own conservation association, with WCS’s support. It hopes to add basic facilities for tourists in the long term, which tells you there are none to count on yet.

Before you visit

The National Park Service asks every visitor to finish registration with the park’s own office before entering, and advises booking in advance. It says rangers and guides go with visitors on tour. For Old Oyo it names the place to do this: the head office in Oyo town, on the Oyo to Iseyin road.

The Service’s headquarters in Abuja answers on 08099285516 and at [email protected]. Its contact page gives a phone number for the conservator of each park.

None of the official pages we read publishes entry fees or opening hours for a park or reserve. Ask the park office, and do not rely on a figure from a blog.

Security differs a great deal from one part of Nigeria to another, and it changes. We are not placed to judge it for you. Read current official travel advice before you plan, such as the UK government’s page on Nigeria if you are coming from abroad, and ask the park office about the road and the sector you mean to visit before you set out.

On what the official pages publish, Old Oyo and Okomu look the simplest to arrange. Old Oyo names the office that takes bookings, and Okomu is 38 km from Benin City with chalets at its Arakhuan base camp. That is a point about paperwork, not about safety. If you only want a look at the animals, the Service’s headquarters on Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Expressway in Abuja has a mini-park, an animal orphanage and a natural history museum, and says it is open to visitors all year.

Quick answers

How many national parks are in Nigeria?

Seventeen by the official count: the seven long-established parks and the ten approved since 2020. The National Park Service’s website still describes only the seven.

Which is the largest national park in Nigeria?

Gashaka Gumti, in Adamawa and Taraba States, at 6,731 sq km. The smallest is Okomu in Edo State, at 202.24 sq km.

Yankari Game Reserve is located in which state?

Bauchi State. It is a state game reserve and has not been a national park since 2006.

What is the difference between a national park and a game reserve?

In Nigeria, a national park is federal and comes under the National Park Service. A game reserve belongs to the state it is in, and a few are run by communities.

What are 10 game reserves in Nigeria and their locations?

Yankari and Lame Burra (Bauchi), Kwiambana (Zamfara), Pai River (Plateau), Ibi (Taraba), Lake Chad (Borno), Stubbs Creek (Akwa Ibom), Okpara (Oyo), Ohosu and Orle River (Edo).

If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.