Getting Around Nigeria

The short version

Two rules do most of the work here. Travel by arranged vehicle, and finish before dark. Everything else is detail.

What is actually on the road

In Lagos the yellow danfo minibus is the city's circulatory system, along with the three-wheeled keke and, on the main corridors, a bus rapid transit service with its own lanes. They are cheap, they are constant, and they are how most of the twenty million people around you get to work. They are also crowded, unpredictable about where they stop, and driven in traffic that does not reward hesitation.

We are not going to be sniffy about them. A danfo ride with someone who knows the route is one of the more honest hours you can spend in Lagos. We are going to say that it is not how a visiting group with luggage and a schedule should move between two points, and that the difference is not comfort but predictability.

Why the road, specifically

The FCDO describes high levels of violent street crime throughout Nigeria, with frequent reports of carjackings, some involving armed gunmen, on urban roads, and says rural road networks are especially dangerous. Its standing advice is to limit road travel at night as far as possible. Terrorist groups have also constructed unauthorized vehicle checkpoints on major supply and commercial routes in the north east, which is one more reason a leisure itinerary does not use those roads at all.

Two more things change plans without notice. Curfews and restrictions on vehicle movement are imposed, amended and lifted at short notice throughout the country, and failing to observe one carries a real risk of arrest and detention. And mobile networks have in the past been ordered to suspend service with very little warning, so a driver who can be reached by phone is not something to rely on absolutely.

Between cities

Nigeria is large and internal flights do a great deal of the work that a road journey would do in a smaller country. Where a road transfer is genuinely the right answer, it is planned as a daylight journey with a known driver and a known route, and it is not squeezed to the last hour of light.

The advisory picture also constrains the map. The FCDO advises against all travel to several states and against all but essential travel to many more, so a number of overland routes that look sensible on a map cross ground a responsible operator will not take a group through. That is covered properly in the travel safety guide.

Airport arrivals

Arrange the pickup before you fly and know the name of the person meeting you. Arriving at Murtala Muhammed in Lagos late at night and negotiating a ride at the curb is the single most avoidable bad start to a Nigerian trip. See visa and entry requirements for what happens before you reach the arrivals hall.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Nigeria safety and security: terrorism, kidnap described as widespread and able to occur anywhere, street and vehicle crime, curfews and financial scams. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Nigeria regional risks: the states the FCDO advises against all travel to, and the states it advises against all but essential travel to. Accessed 14 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Nigeria travel advice: the FCDO advises against all travel to parts of Nigeria and against all but essential travel to further parts. Accessed 14 September 2026.