AFRICA

Niger

A vast, mostly Saharan country in West Africa, Niger takes its name from the great river that curves through its southwest, and it regularly ranks among the hottest nations on the planet.

WHAT THE FLAG MEANS ◢

Three horizontal bands of orange, white and green with an orange disc in the centre of the white band. The constitution names the tricolour as the national emblem, fixes that order from top to bottom and calls the central charge simply a disc of orange colour, assigning none of it a meaning. The colours are conventionally read as orange for the Sahara and the north, white for purity and green for the fertile south and hope, and the disc as the sun.

Niger FACTS ◢

Capital	Niamey
Continent	Africa
Population	27,917,831 (2025)
Area	1,267,000 km²
Population density	22/km²
Currency	West African CFA franc (XOF)
National language	Hausa
Calling code	+227
Internet TLD	.ne
Time zone	UTC+01:00
Drives on the	Right
ISO codes	NE / NER

DID YOU KNOW? ◢

More than two-thirds of the country lies within the Sahara Desert.
It's named after the Niger River, which flows through its southwestern corner.
The Aïr and Ténéré region is home to a vast desert nature reserve, one of the largest protected areas in Africa.
The Tree of Ténéré was once considered the most isolated tree on Earth, standing alone in the open desert.