The Nigerian military has fallen three places in the latest Global Firepower (GFP) rankings, now sitting at 39th out of 145 countries. This marks a consecutive two-year decline, as Nigeria was previously ranked 36th in 2023 and 35th in 2022.
Despite investments in advanced fighter jets and other combat equipment, as well as reported successes in combating terrorism, the Armed Forces have also slipped from third to fourth place in Africa.
The GFP report evaluates over 60 factors to rank nations, including the size of military units, financial strength, logistics, and geography. Nigeria’s current PowerIndex score stands at 0.5619, with a perfect score being 0.0000.
Globally, the United States retained its position as the top-ranked military for the 18th consecutive year, followed by Russia, China, and India. Other nations in the top 10 include South Korea, the United Kingdom, Japan, Turkey, Pakistan, and Italy.
In Africa, Egypt remains the leading military power, followed by Algeria and South Africa. Ethiopia, Angola, and Morocco are among other notable African countries on the list.
The GFP report highlighted that the rankings allow technologically advanced smaller nations to compete with larger, less developed countries through its unique scoring system.
While Nigeria continues to face challenges in global rankings, the report underscores the complexity of military strength assessments, balancing material capacity with logistical and financial realities.
