Africa · Western Africa
How to draw Nigeria from memory
Nigeria is a single continuous landmass, roughly as wide as it is tall. Lock that proportion in before you worry about any individual stretch of border. Its border is simple by world standards, which makes it a good place to build confidence — and also means a low score here has nowhere to hide.
- Difficulty
- easy
- Population
- 201.0 m
- Code
- NGA
Draw Nigeria
Practice · draw from memory
Nigeria
A four-step strategy for Nigeria
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. Nigeria is close to square overall, so a lopsided sketch loses points fast.
- 02
Anchor one unmistakable feature — the straightest border section or the sharpest cape — and draw outward from it in a single continuous stroke.
- 03
Close the loop back to where you started. An open shape gets filled unpredictably and drags your score down.
- 04
Submit, read the nine-sector grid, and redraw immediately. The sector readout names the region you under-drew, and a second attempt typically gains 10–20 points.
Top scores for Nigeria
Nobody has submitted a score for Nigeria yet. Draw it above and you are first on this board.
Full leaderboard →Quick facts
- Continent
- Africa
- Subregion
- Western Africa
- Outline pieces
- 1
- Detail score
- 1.97
Three things that go wrong when people sketch Nigeria
Each one is measured off the outline the game scores, not copied from a reference atlas: the proportions, the straight sections and the way the shape breaks into pieces are all properties of the coordinates your stroke gets compared against.
It narrows sharply toward the south
Measured across, the outline is 2.9× wider near its northern edge than near its southern one. A sketch that keeps the same width all the way down looks plausible and scores badly, because a missing taper is missing area.
Nigeria is close to square
Width against height comes out at 1.23 to 1, so the shape neither runs away sideways nor stretches vertically. Set that box first: with a near-square country almost every lost point comes from the coast detail inside it, not the footprint.
Close the loop before adding detail
Nigeria occupies a 440×358 unit box on the game canvas. Fill that box with one continuous closed stroke first: the scorer compares filled area, so an open outline loses the interior it never enclosed.
Answer key: the real shape of Nigeria
- Box on the canvas
- 440 × 358 units
- Width to height
- 1.23 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 1
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 1.28× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn Nigeria at least once. Seeing the shape first replaces the recall the score is meant to measure with tracing, and tracing always scores higher than remembering.
Why Nigeria is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of Nigeria. It scales and centres both your stroke and the real border into the same box, fills them, and measures how much of the two shapes overlap relative to their combined area. That means you are never punished for drawing Nigeria small, off to one side, or rotated slightly — only for getting the shape itself wrong. The nine-sector grid then splits the real border into a 3×3 mesh and reports coverage per cell, which is how it can tell you that you lost the whole eastern edge rather than just handing you a number.
Nigeria by the numbers
Nigeria covers 923,768 km², which makes it the 30th largest of 190 countries in the game and the 14th largest in Africa. The capital is Abuja at about 10°N, 8°E, and it sits in Western Africa. It touches Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and 100% of its area sits in one main landmass. The rest of the perimeter is water.
Next to Nigeria: its land neighbours
Size is what the outline has to fill, so comparing the countries that share this border side by side is the fastest way to get the proportions into your head before you draw.
| Country | Area | Population | Capital | Pieces | vs Nigeria |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeriathis page | 923,768 km² | 201.0 m | Abuja | 1 | — |
 Benin | 112,622 km² | 11.8 m | Porto-Novo | 1 | 0.12× |
 Cameroon | 475,442 km² | 25.9 m | Yaoundé | 1 | 0.51× |
 Chad | 1,284,000 km² | 15.9 m | N'Djamena | 1 | 1.39× |
 Niger | 1,267,000 km² | 23.3 m | Niamey | 1 | 1.37× |
Draw these next
Countries near Nigeria share border conventions and coastline styles, which makes them the most useful follow-up practice.
Working through one country at a time is slow. Take the blank map of africa and label the whole region from memory — it shows you which neighbours you have never actually seen.
Nigeria drawing questions
How big is Nigeria?
Nigeria covers 923,768 km², ranking 30th of 190 countries here by land area and 14th in Africa. About 72% of the area of Chad.
What is the capital of Nigeria?
The capital is Abuja at about 10°N, 8°E. The game scores the shape of the border rather than the position of any city, so the capital and its coordinates are here to help you place Nigeria on a blank map.
Is Nigeria hard to draw?
It is rated easy, and carries more outline detail than 24% of the 190 borders in this game. The shape has to be placed as 1 landmass, with no straight edge longer than 8% of the perimeter to anchor it.
Which countries border Nigeria?
Nigeria shares a land border with Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The remaining perimeter is coast, which is the part that usually costs points.