Firepower: Nigeria Military Ranked 33rd Globally, 3rd In Africa

The Nigerian military is ranked 33rd globally and 3rd in Africa by the Global Firepower (GFP) index report for 2026.

Nigeria declined from 31st in 2025 to 33rd in 2026, despite its huge defence budget.

The 2026 Global Firepower Defence reviewed 145 countries using over 60 individual factors to determine a given nation’s “PowerIndex” (‘PwrIndx’).

The 2026 global firepower review considered 145 world powers (nations) with a perfect index of 0.0000.

According to the global ranking, the USA maintained its 1st position with 0.0741 index, Russia 2nd with 0.0791, China 3rd with 0.0919, India 4th with 0.1346, South Korea 5th with 0.1642, Egypt 19th with 0.3651, Ukraine 20th with 0.3691, and Nigeria 33rd with 0.6097.

The African category shows that Egypt is ranked 1st with 0.3651, Algeria 2nd with 0.4849 index and Nigeria 3rd with 0.6097.

This shows a decline for Nigeria despite its acclaimed status as the giant of Africa.

In 2025, the Nigerian military was ranked 31st in the Global Firepower Index 2025 and third in Africa.

This marked an improvement in its ranking from the previous year, 2024, when Nigeria was ranked 39th globally in firepower.

However, in 2026, the Nigerian Military dropped two spots to rank 33rd.