Nigeria's Armed Forces has dropped to 39th in the 2024 Global Firepower (GFP) rankings globally. This marks the third consecutive decline after being ranked 36th in 2023 and 35th in 2022.
145 countries were considered in the annual Global Firepower review.
On the African continent, the country also slipped from third to fourth place behind South Africa, Algeria and Egypt.
The poor ranking comes despite Nigeria's recent acquisition of advanced fighter jets and military assets, as well as reported progress in combating terrorism within its borders.
The Global FirePower ranking utilizes 60 individual factors to determine a given nation's power index score with categories ranging from quality of military units and financial standing to logistical capabilities and geography.
Nigeria's Power Index (PwrIndx) score for 2024 was 0.5619, with a score of 0.0000 representing the pinnacle of military strength.
Meanwhile, Egypt retained its position as Africa's strongest military, followed by Algeria and South Africa.
US military retains top spot for 18 consecutive year
Globally, the United States maintained its dominance, ranking first for the 18th consecutive years. Other global powers such as Russia, China, India, and South Korea rounded out the top five.
Notable African nations, such as Ethiopia, Angola, Morocco, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, also appeared in the rankings, reflecting the countries' diverse military landscape.
Some of the categories considered shows that Nigeria is at the bottom of the radar in terms of helicopter carrier fleet strength by country, tanker fleet strength by country, destroyer fleet strength by country, naval corvette fleet strength by country, submarine fleet strength, and reserve military strength, ranking 145 out of all the countries reviewed. It also ranked poorly in terms of crude oil consumption by country and natural gas consumption by country.
It, however, scored excellent in total available manpower, population fit-for-service, and paramilittary strength among others.
The drop in rankings raises questions about Nigeria's defence capabilities and resource allocation amidst its ongoing security challenges.
