# National Cancer Registry of Nigeria

Source: https://onco.cc/institutions/nigeria-national-cancer-registry/  
OnCo record `nigeria-national-cancer-registry` (Institution). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Nigeria's network of population-based and hospital-based cancer registries, now run by the national cancer institute. A handful of regional registries aim to count every cancer in their area; there is no single national count yet.

## Summary

Nigeria's first cancer registry was set up in 1960 in the Pathology Department of University College Hospital, Ibadan, and its data appeared in the first three volumes of Cancer Incidence in Five Continents. The Nigerian National System of Cancer Registries was conceived in 2009 by the Federal Ministry of Health, the Society of Oncology and Cancer Research of Nigeria and the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria to coordinate and strengthen registries and establish new ones; its 2015 report lists population-based registries in Abuja (founded 2009), Calabar (2004) and Ibadan (1960).

The 2024 National Cancer Registry Regulations made cancer a notifiable disease and established the National Cancer Registry of Nigeria, which the 2025 imPACT Review describes as comprising 26 population-based and hospital-based registries; five population-based registries (Abuja, Calabar, Ekiti, Enugu and Ibadan) contribute data to Nigeria's GLOBOCAN estimates and none has contributed to Cancer Incidence in Five Continents. The review notes that most registries have no dedicated budget and that the last national census was in 2006, which limits incidence rates. NICRAT's 2023 to 2027 plan gave a different count, 34 registries with 13 population-based and 24 hospital-based. NICRAT now runs the registry from Abuja; the coordinates on this record are an approximate Wuse district point.

The latest published population-based figures found for this record are for 2009 to 2014 (Ibadan and Abuja 2009 to 2010, Calabar 2009 to 2013, Abuja and Enugu 2012 to 2014). NICRAT reports producing a first national Cancer Burden Report for 2024 and validating national registry standard operating procedures on 29 June 2026; its national cancer statistics page was under construction on 4 November 2026.

## Fields

- Kind: Institution
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: Nigerian National System of Cancer Registries; NSCR; NCR Nigeria
- City: Abuja (network of registries), NG
- Type: consortium
- Website: https://ncr.nicrat.gov.ng

## Sources

- National Cancer Registry, Nigeria (NICRAT): https://ncr.nicrat.gov.ng/
- imPACT Review summary, section 4: cancer registry (PDF): https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/2025-11/nigeria-impact-241024.pdf
- NICRAT: experts approve Nigeria's first national cancer registry standards (1 July 2026): https://www.nicrat.gov.ng/01/experts-approve-nigerias-first-national-cancer-registry-standards/
- NICRAT: cancer declared a notifiable disease in Nigeria (28 June 2024): https://www.nicrat.gov.ng/28/breaking-news-cancer-declared-a-notifiable-disease-in-nigeria/
- Jedy-Agba et al., the Nigerian National System of Cancer Registries (Front Public Health 2015): https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00186

## Connected records

- technologies: [Cancer registries and population surveillance](https://onco.cc/technologies/cancer-registries-surveillance/)
- cancers: [Cervical cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/cervical/), [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- institutions: [International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO)](https://onco.cc/institutions/iarc/), [National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT)](https://onco.cc/institutions/nicrat/), [University College Hospital, Ibadan](https://onco.cc/institutions/uch-ibadan/)
- key papers: [Building national cancer registration in a developing country: the Nigerian National System of Cancer Registries](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-jedy-agba-nscr-front-public-health-2015/), [Cancer incidence in Nigeria from the Ibadan and Abuja population-based cancer registries, 2009 to 2010](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-jedy-agba-nigeria-registries-canep-2012/), [Five-year cancer incidence in Calabar, Nigeria, 2009 to 2013](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-ekanem-parkin-calabar-incidence-canep-2016/)

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