Flag: Nigeria Emoji

The flag of Nigeria. Three vertical stripes: green, white, green. Ratio 1:2. Designed by Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi, a 23-year-old Nigerian student in London, who won a 1959 national competition that drew more than 3,000 entries. Hoisted for the first time at midnight on October 1, 1960 as Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom.

Green stands for Nigeria's agriculture and its forests, rivers, and farmland. White stands for peace and unity between more than 500 ethnic groups and three big constitutional constituencies: the Hausa-Fulani (roughly 30% of the country), the Yoruba (15.5%), and the Igbo (15.2%). Akinkunmi's original 1959 design also included a red sunburst on the white band; the selection committee removed it for simplicity. The flag has not been amended since.

Nigeria is enormous. Roughly 237.5 million people in 2025, the largest country in Africa by population and the biggest Black nation on Earth. Lagos alone holds more than 20 million; the capital moved to Abuja in 1991. The median age is 18.3, one of the youngest in the world. Nigerian culture now sits at the center of global pop: Afrobeats is a global genre with its own Grammy category (2024), and Nollywood is the world's second-largest film industry by output, producing 2,000+ films a year.

🇳🇬 shows up hard on social. It's one of the most-used African flag emojis on X, TikTok, and Instagram, driven by artists, footballers, Nollywood releases, and a diaspora of 700,000+ in the US alone. Added in Emoji 2.0 (2015), regional indicator pair U+1F1F3U+1F1F3 + U+1F1ECU+1F1EC (N + G). Platforms without flag support fall back to NGNG.

Afrobeats is the biggest single driver. Nigerian artists dominate global Afrobeats charts: Burna Boy, Wizkid, Rema, Ayra Starr, and Tems are routinely at the top of Spotify's global Afrobeats playlists. Rema's "Calm Down" with Selena Gomez) has been the most-exported Nigerian song three years running. Every major album drop triggers a 🇳🇬 wave on X. Tems won the Best African Music Grammy in 2025, the category's second-ever winner.

Nollywood. Africa's biggest film industry produces 2,000+ films per year, roughly $1.2 billion in annual revenue. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Showmax have all spent heavily on local Nigerian studios since 2022. Premieres drop 🇳🇬 clouds across Nigerian-Twitter every Friday.

Super Eagles football. The Nigerian national team is 3x AFCON champion (1980, 1994, 2013), 6x World Cup qualifier, and finished bronze at AFCON 2025 after beating Egypt on penalties. Captain Victor Osimhen is one of the highest-paid African footballers ever. Every Super Eagles match generates a 🇳🇬 spike on X and TikTok.

The Jollof Derby. Nigeria vs Ghana matches, in any sport, are known as the Jollof Derby. The rivalry extends to comments about whose jollof rice is better. Reply-guys in every direction; 🇳🇬🇬🇭 threads can run for days.

Diaspora. Roughly 712,000 Nigerian-Americans per the 2022 ACS, concentrated in Houston (nicknamed "Naija HQ"), New York (Brooklyn, the Bronx), Dallas-Fort Worth, and Chicago. The UK has 200,000+. Diaspora 🇳🇬 peaks on October 1 Independence Day, during AFCON and World Cup, and every time an Afrobeats artist drops a chart-hitting single.

News-cycle drives. EndSARS in October 2020 triggered one of the biggest sustained 🇳🇬 waves ever. The Lekki Toll Gate shooting on October 20, 2020 was livestreamed by DJ Switch to 150,000 people; the Nigerian flag tied around an injured protester's leg became one of the defining images of the protests. Every October 20 still carries a memorial 🇳🇬 + ✊🏿 wave.

• 🏛️
  Capital: Abuja (9.08°N, 7.40°E) since 1991. Lagos was the capital pre-1991.
• 🏙️
  Largest city: Lagos (~20 million, Africa's megacity)
• 👥
  Population: ~237.5 million (2025); biggest country in Africa, 6th-biggest in the world
• 👶
  Median age: 18.3 years, one of the youngest populations in the world
• 🗺️
  Area: 923,768 km² (slightly larger than Texas and Oklahoma combined)
• 💵
  Currency: Nigerian naira (NGN, ₦)
• 🗣️
  Languages: English (official); Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo dominant native languages; 500+ total
• 🛐
  Religions: ~46% Christian (mostly south), ~46% Muslim (mostly north), traditional beliefs
• 📞
  Calling code: +234
• ⏰
  Time zone: WAT (UTC+1), no DST
• 🌐
  Internet TLD: .ng

Foods that show up next to 🇳🇬

Landmarks and cultural sites

The 1959 competition. As Nigeria prepared for independence, the government invited flag designs from the public. More than 3,000 were submitted. The winning entry came from Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi, a 23-year-old Nigerian student studying at Norwood Technical College in London. His original design included a red sunburst (a stylized 16-ray red sun) on the white band, representing the sun's heat and vitality. The Nigerian Review Committee removed the sunburst and kept the rest.

The midnight raising. At midnight on October 1, 1960), Lieutenant David Ejoor of the Nigerian Army Guard hoisted the new flag in Lagos, replacing the British Union Jack. Princess Alexandra of Kent read the Queen's speech at the transfer of power. Tafawa Balewa became Nigeria's first Prime Minister. Akinkunmi watched the ceremony on television in the UK.

Life after design. Akinkunmi returned to Nigeria and worked as a civil servant and librarian in Ibadan. He lived quietly and reportedly never profited from his design. In 2014, at age 78, he was awarded the national honor MFR (Member of the Order of the Federal Republic) by President Goodluck Jonathan, alongside a presidential ex-gratia. He died in Ibadan in 2023 at age 88.

No amendments. Unlike many post-independence African flags, Nigeria's has not changed since 1960. No adjustments to proportions, colors, or design. The green and white have stayed exactly as Akinkunmi drew them.

• 🎓
  May 27: Children's Day: Parades at primary and secondary schools across the country. A nostalgic 🇳🇬 moment for the diaspora.
• 🗳️
  June 12: Democracy Day: [Moved from May 29 to June 12 in 2019](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Day_(Nigeria)) to commemorate the annulled 1993 presidential election. Public holiday with presidential speech and military parade.
• 🎉
  October 1: Independence Day: The biggest 🇳🇬 civic day of the year. Parade and presidential address in Abuja, fireworks in Lagos, diaspora pride posts worldwide. Marks 1960 independence from the UK.
• 🕯️
  October 20: EndSARS remembrance: [Anniversary of the Lekki Toll Gate shooting](https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/19/nigeria-year-no-justice-endsars-crackdown). Not an official holiday but widely observed online each year.
• 🎄
  December: Detty December: The homecoming month. Lagos concerts (Flytime Fest, Wizkid and Davido shows), beach parties, weddings, and a huge diaspora return wave. Flight fares into Lagos triple; restaurants book out weeks ahead.

• •Nigeria's flag was designed by a 23-year-old student. Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi beat 3,000+ other entries in 1959. His original design included a red sunburst; the selection committee removed it.
• •Nigeria is the 6th-most populous country on Earth with 237.5 million people (2025). By 2050 it will likely be 3rd, after India and China, overtaking the US.
• •Lagos is Africa's biggest city at ~20 million people, growing by an estimated 77 new residents every hour. It's also the only city in sub-Saharan Africa projected to have 30+ million people by 2035.
• •Nollywood is the world's second-largest film industry by output, producing 2,000+ films a year, about $1.2B in annual revenue. Only Bollywood makes more.
• •Afrobeats dominates global African music charts. Wizkid, Burna Boy, Rema, Tems, and Davido have been among Spotify's top 5 global Afrobeats artists every year since 2022. The Grammys added a Best African Music category in 2024, won the first year by South Africa's Tyla and the second year by Nigeria's Tems.
• •Nigeria's Super Eagles are 3x AFCON champions (1980, 1994, 2013), have played in 6 FIFA World Cups, and finished bronze at AFCON 2025.
• •Wole Soyinka was the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1986). Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958) is the most-taught African novel worldwide. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun is the Biafra-War literary touchstone.
• •The 2020 EndSARS protests produced one of the most viewed Nigerian political moments in emoji history. A Nigerian flag tied around an injured protester's leg at Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, became the defining image of the movement.

• •🇳🇬 is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1F3U+1F1F3 (N) + U+1F1ECU+1F1EC (G). ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code: NGNG.
• •Unsupported platforms render it as the letters NGNG. Common in older Windows chat clients.
• •Shortcode: :flag_ng::flag_ng: or :nigeria::nigeria: on most messaging platforms.

See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.