Men are driving the growing demand for paternity testing in Nigeria, with males accounting for 78.6 percent of first contacts for paternity tests at Smart DNA Nigeria during the laboratory’s 2025/2026 reporting period.
The development comes as the laboratory recorded negative results in 23.6 percent of paternity tests during the period, meaning the tested man was excluded as the biological father in nearly one out of every four cases examined.
However, the figure should not be interpreted as showing that nearly one in four Nigerian fathers is unknowingly raising another man’s child. Smart DNA’s data cover people who sought testing at the laboratory and are not a national prevalence study.
The 23.6 percent negative-result rate also represents a marginal improvement from 24 percent in the preceding reporting period and 26.1 percent in 2023, marking a gradual decline over three reporting periods.
The data provide a glimpse into how Nigerians are increasingly turning to DNA technology to resolve questions about biological parentage, particularly where uncertainty has become difficult to settle through personal assurances or family relationships.
