Welcome to Kwara State!
Kwara is a state in the North Central part of Nigeria. Kwara State (Yoruba: Ìpínlẹ̀ Kwárà) is a state in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria, bordered to the east by Kogi State, to the north by Niger State, and to the south by Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo states while its western border makes up part of the international border with the Benin Republic. Named for the Hausa and Nupe word "Kwara" for the River Niger—which makes up much of the state's northern border-Kwara State was formed from the Northern Region on 27 May 1967 as the West Central State. Its capital is the city of Ilorin and the state has 16 local government areas.
Of the 36 states of Nigeria, Kogi is the ninth largest in the area but the sixth least populous with an estimated population of about 3.2 million as of 2016. Geographically, Kwara is split between the West Sudanian savanna in the east and the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic ecoregion in the rest of the state. Important geographic features include rivers with the Niger flowing along the northern border into Lake Jeba before continuing as the border while the Awun, Asa, Aluko, and Oyun rivers flow through the interior. In the far northwest of the state is the Borgu section of the Kainji National Park, a large national park that contains populations of grey heron, kob, hippopotamus, African bush elephant, olive baboon, and roan antelope along with some of the last remaining West African lions on Earth. In the far southeast, a small part of the Old Oyo National Park contains crowned eagle, martial eagle, African buffalo, oribi, and patas monkey populations. Kogi State has been inhabited for years by various ethnic groups, primarily the majority Yoruba people that live throughout the state but there are sizable minorities of Nupe people in the northwest, Bariba (Baatonu) and Busa (Bokobaru) peoples in the east, and the Fulani people in Ilorin and moving through the state as nomadic herders. Religiously, the majority of the state's population (~75%) are Muslim with Christian and traditionalist minorities at about 20% and 5%, respectively.
In the pre-colonial period, the area that is now Kwara State was split up between various states including the Oyo Empire, Borgu Emirate, and the Nupe Kingdom until the early 1800s when the Fulani jihad annexed much of now-Kwara and placed the area under the Sokoto Caliphate. In the 1890s and 1900s, British expeditions occupied the area and incorporated it into the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. Northern Nigeria later merged into British Nigeria in 1914 before becoming independent as Nigeria in 1960. Originally, modern-day Kwara State was a part of the post-independence Northern Region until 1967 when the region was split and the area became the West Central State. In 1976, the state was renamed Kwara State and remained intact until the 1990s when its southeast was split off to form a part of Kogi State and its far northwest was given to Niger State.
Economically, Kwara State is largely based on agriculture, mainly coffee, cotton, groundnut, cocoa, oil palm, and kola nut crops. Other key industries are services, especially in the city of Ilorin, and the livestock herding and ranching of cattle, goats, and sheep. Kwara has the joint-twentieth highest Human Development Index in the country and numerous institutions of tertiary education.