Nigeria observes West Africa Time (WAT), which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+01:00), year-round as standard time. Nigeria has never observed daylight saving time.
World Time Zones Map
It shares WAT with fourteen other countries in Africa. The differences between time zones to each other are always specified in relation to the "Universal Time Coordinated" (UTC), the time on the prime meridian (zero longitude). West Africa Time is consistent with UTC +1.
Countries in West Africa Time (WAT):
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Congo, Democratic Republic of the
- Congo, Republic of the
- Equatorial Guinea
- Gabon
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Tunisia
Although the timezone is named "West Africa Time", it is mostly for political reasons. It simply means that the beginning and ending of daylight savings time always apply here uniformly. There are some other countries, in which the clock strikes the same hour. These countries have the same temporal distance to UTC (Universal Time Coordinated).
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In the IANA time zone database, Nigeria is given one zone in the file zone.tab-Africa/Lagos. Lagos is Nigeria's largest city, a major African financial centre, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world. "NG" refers to the country's ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code.
Historical Context of Time Zones in Nigeria
Prior to 1 January 1914, Nigeria was not unified; the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate were separate entities.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT; UTC+00:00) was adopted as the standard time of capital Lagos in the Southern Nigeria Protectorate-a protectorate of the British Empire-on 1 July 1905, however Lagos reverted to local mean time on 1 July 1908.
Lagos, the capital of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, first adopted the standard time of Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+00:00) on 1 July 1905, but reverted to local mean time on 1 July 1908. After the protectorates were amalgamated, UTC+00:30 was adopted nationwide. Nigeria's local mean time was UTC+00:13:35.
The Southern and Northern Nigeria Protectorates were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria on 1 January 1914. On 28 August 1919, the first reading of the Ordinance to amend the Interpretation Ordinance, 1914 bill to switch Nigeria's time zone to UTC+01:00 took place.
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A brief history of Nigerian time | Tunji Lardner | TEDxYaba
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