The United Kingdom rejected no fewer than 1,344,595 visa applications submitted by Nigerians between 2005 and the first quarter of 2026, making Nigeria the country with the second-highest number of UK visa refusals globally after India, according to official data released by the UK Home Office.
The figures, obtained from the UK Home Office’s entry clearance visa outcomes dataset, show that Nigeria accounted for 15.2 per cent of all 8.83 million visa refusals recorded worldwide during the 21-year period
Despite the high rejection rate, Nigeria also emerged as one of the UK’s largest sources of successful visa applicants, with 2,723,558 visas granted over the same period.
This places Nigeria third globally in total visas issued, behind only India and China, while maintaining its position as Africa’s largest recipient of UK entry clearance visas.
The dataset, which covers visitor, study, work, family and other visa categories from 2005 to the first quarter of 2026, indicates that approximately 4.09 million Nigerians applied for UK visas, with decisions reached on 4,068,153 applications.
