Nigeria Ranks 48th Globally and 3rd in Africa. Who Are the Researchers Behind the Ranking?
Nigeria’s 48th global and 3rd African position in the AD Scientific Index shows the scale of its indexed research community and where that research strength is concentrated.
53,580 is a big number to attach to one country's research community.
Nigeria has 53,580 researchers listed in thelatest AD Scientific Index, placing the country 48th globally and third in Africa.
By the number of researchers listed, Nigeria has a larger indexed research pool than South Africa and Egypt, although the three countries rank differently across the index's other measures.
The October 2026 update covers researchers affiliated with 384 Nigerian institutions, giving a broad picture of the people and universities currently represented in the global academic database.
AD Scientific Index ranks researchers using indicators including citations, H-index and i10-index, while also ranking the universities and institutions where those researchers work.
The 53,580 figure is therefore the number of Nigerian researchers captured by the index, rather than a national census of everyone working in science and research.
University of Ibadan leads Nigeria
The University of Ibadan has the strongest position among Nigerian universities in the ranking.
UI is ranked 889th globally among nearly 19,800 universities and 14th in Africa. It is also the only Nigerian university to appear in the global top 1,000, with 1,586 researchers listed in the index.
The university's position is followed by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Covenant University, the University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, the University of Ilorin and Ahmadu Bello University, among other Nigerian institutions.
Federal universities make upeight of Nigeria's top 10 institutions in the ranking.
Then there are the researchers behind the number
The people behind that number are worth looking at too.
Shafiu Mohammed of Ahmadu Bello University is among Nigeria's highest-ranked researchers, with a career H-index of 139 on AD Scientific Index. His research covers areas including global health, health systems and policy, health economics and epidemiology.
At the University of Ibadan, Mayowa Owolabi has a career H-index of 124. His research includes stroke, neurorehabilitation, neurogenetics and population health.
Another UI researcher, Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi, has a career H-index of 119, with research interests including health policy and management, infection prevention and disease prevention.
These researchers contribute to Nigeria's position in the index, with work spanning health, engineering, agriculture, economics, technology and the natural sciences.
The 53,580 researchers listed for Nigeria represent a slight increase from the 53,214 researchers recorded in November 2025, an addition of 366 researchers in the database.