Kainji Lake National Park

The lake was created when the Kainji dam on the Niger was built in the 1960s, flooding a long stretch of the valley and displacing settlements along it. Game reserves in the area, including the Borgu and Zugurma sectors, were brought together as a national park in the 1970s, and the park has since been managed as a conservation and research area. The surrounding country is associated with Borgu and neighbouring communities, and the Nupe and Hausa worlds meet in this part of the North Central zone.

The park is Guinea savannah: open grassland, wooded valleys and gallery forest along watercourses, with the lake shore in the Borgu sector. Wildlife recorded in the park includes antelope species, baboons, hippopotamus and a wide range of birds, and sightings depend heavily on season and time of day. Access is by track and requires park permission and a guide. Conditions and available routes change, so current park information should be checked before a visit.

The dam that created the lake belongs to the post-independence development described in Post-war Nigeria and military governments, and the fisheries it supports relate to the wider account of Niger Delta and coastal fisheries only by contrast, since Kainji is an inland freshwater lake.