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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Nigeria

The list of Nigeria bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2010, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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23 Feb 2010 (Punch-Abuja) Nigeria's Minister of State for Interior, Chief Ademola Seriki, has announced that the date of the upcoming Id-el Maulud (Prophet's Birthday) public holiday would be Friday, February 26, 2010. • 28 Dec 2009 (The Independent-Lagos) Nigeria's Niger State Government has declared three days of mourning following the death of Maryam Babangida who is expected to be buried in Minna on Wednesday. • 22 Dec 2009 (Punch-Lagos) Nigeria's Minister of the Interior, Dr. Shettima Mustapha, acting on behalf of President Umaru Yar’Adua, has declared Thursday and Friday, December 24 and 25, 2009, as well as Friday, January 1, 2010 as nationwide public holidays. • 20 Nov 2009 (The Vanguard-Lagos) The Press Assistant Director of Nigeria's Ministry of the Interior, Stephen Nelson, has announced that the Nigerian Federal Government had declared Thursday, November 26, and Friday, November 27, 2009, as public holidays to mark the upcoming Muslim festival of Id-El-Kabir. • 18 Sep 2009 (Daily Triumph-Abuja) Nigeria's Minister of Interior, Dr. Shettima Mustafa, has announced that the federal government had declared Monday and Tuesday, September 21 and 22, 2009, as public holidays to mark the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, and the celebration of Eid-el-Fitr. • 14 Sep 2009 (The Guardian-Lagos) Overnight, the government of Nigeria's Ondo State has declared today, Monday September 14, as a public holiday to allow all segments of the society to pay their last respects to the late lawyer, human rights activist and politician, Chief Ganiyu Fawehinmi. • 22 Aug 2009 (The Vanguard-Yenagoa) The government of Nigeria's State of Bayelsa has declared that August 22 of every year would be a state public holiday in commemoration of today's return of peace to the state. • 15 Jun 2009 (NEXT-Lagos) The Lagos State government has called on the Nigerian federal government to declare June 12 an annual national public holiday. • 11 Jun 2009 (Daily Triumph-Lagos) As expected, Nigeria's Lagos State government declared Friday, June 12, 2009, a work-free public holiday. • 27 May 2009 (This Day Online-Abuja) he Governor of Nigeria's State of Edo, Adams Oshiomhole, has announced that Edo State would not be observing the upcoming May 29, Democracy Day public holiday. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Nigeria public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Governing Law: The Public Holidays Act of 1979, chapter 378, replaced all previous state laws by one federal law regulating all the official public holidays in Nigeria and was later amended by the HB. 72 A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Amendment of the Public Holidays Act Cap. 378 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 by adding a new item to the Schedule which added a public holiday on July 6, but was later replaced by Public Holidays Act, Cap.P40, Vol.14 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 which technically, however, is inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution which states, under Item 51, that only the National Assembly has the exclusive powers to declare public holidays in the Federation. This concerns specifically the May 29 public holiday, the only new holiday added since 1999. • Regional Public Holidays: article 2b of the above-mentioned Public Holidays Act specifies that state governors have the right to declare additional, state-level, public holidays. This allowance has been used in the Muslim north since 2003 by the Kano state governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, where the Islamic New Year is a full-fledged public holiday. • Weekend Public Holidays: articles 5a to 5d of the above-mentioned Public Holidays Act go to great lengths to specify that no day in lieu will be given to compensate any public holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday. • Last-Minute Public Holidays: The Government often declares public holidays spontaneously, often just a few days before the holiday. This includes, in contradiction with what is stated in the Public Holidays Act, compensation days when Islamic public holidays fall on a weekend, as well as additional Easter-related public holidays, and general elections (see next point). • Democracy Day was declared a public holiday by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, following the May 29, 1999, transition from military to civilian government. • Elections' Public Holidays: Most elections, lead to some kind of last minute public holiday announcement, either only for civil servants, or for the entire country. Updated dates of upcoming Nigeria elections can be found on the IFES web site and last-minute changes to world holidays are posted on our blog . • Muslim Holidays: Over the last few years, Nigeria and Libya, have often declared the beginning of Hijra months earlier than all other Muslim countries. This is particularly true of the start of the month of Ramadan and of the Eid al Fitr public holiday, in some cases (eg. Eid al Fitr 2008) even declaring the month to begin before the New Moon had occurred. • Eid al Adha is also called Babbar Sallah in the Nigerian-related languages. • Nigeria International Codes NG and NGA (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .ng (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of Nigeria information and news: Central Bank of Nigeria (Nigeria central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (Nigeria maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in Nigeria), and Wikipedia (includes Nigeria commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Nigeria, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world. Aft=Afternoon, Arm=Armenian, Bah=Bahai, Bnk=Banks and most financial institutions, Bud=Buddhist, Cat=Catholic, Chr=Christian, Cop=Coptic, Eve=Evening, Gov=Government services and civil servants, Hin=Hindu, Jew=Jewish, Lin=Linguistic or ethnic groups, Mor=Morning, Mun=Municipal, Mus=Muslim, Orth=Orthodox, Othr=Miscellaneous partial observances (usually described in the Additional Information section of this page), Prt=Protestant, Reg=Regional, Rel=Other Religion, Sch=Schools and universities, Sik=Sikh.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Nigeria that are based on certain religious calendars may be subject to local variations due to differing interpretations between different religious authorities, or to seemingly arbitrary changes in the date a holiday is celebrated because it conflicts with another holiday that is based on another calendar, or because the day of the holiday is deemed inauspicious (bad luck). To find out more about these uncertainties, see the footnote below, if any, for each specific religion.

Muslim Holidays : Muslim bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays, for Nigeria, were calculated using the Libyan Center for Remote Sensing and Space Science (LCRSS) lunar visibility criteria. For Salat (prayer times) calculations, see our Freeware page.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2010 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Nigeria, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Nigeria, before planning any trip to Nigeria. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.