Leave by country / Nigeria
Nigeria annual leave entitlement
How much paid leave people in Nigeria get, what happens to unused days, and what you owe when someone leaves — in plain English, whether you run a team there or work on one.
Nigeria's Labour Act guarantees six working days of paid annual holiday after twelve months of continuous service, or twelve working days for workers under sixteen. Leave cannot be bought out while employed, may be deferred by agreement up to 24 months, and is paid pro rata on leaving after six months. The Act's definition of "worker" excludes professional, administrative and executive staff, whose leave is contractual.
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What the law actually says
Section 18(1) entitles every worker, after twelve months of continuous service, to a holiday with full pay of at least six working days, or at least twelve working days for a person under the age of sixteen, apprentices included. Two limits matter as much as the number. The first is that six days is the statutory floor and little more than a formality for skilled staff, who are routinely granted far more by contract. The second is reach: the section 91 definition of "worker" excludes persons exercising administrative, executive, technical or professional functions, so for much of Nigeria's professional and managerial workforce annual leave is a matter of contract rather than statute.
Worth knowing: Section 18(3) makes it unlawful for an employer to pay wages in lieu of the holiday to a worker whose contract has not terminated, so the entitlement cannot be bought out mid-employment. Section 18(2) allows the holiday to be deferred by agreement between employer and worker, but the holiday-earning period may not thereby be pushed beyond 24 months of continuous service. Section 19 restricts the calculation of leave pay to the part of wages received in money, excluding overtime and other allowances.
What happens to unused leave in Nigeria
Nigerian leave can be deferred, but only within a ceiling: section 18(2) permits agreement to defer the holiday provided the holiday-earning period is not extended past 24 months of continuous service. Cash instead of leave is unlawful while the contract subsists under section 18(3). On leaving, section 18(4) pays a worker who has completed at least six months — either in total or since last qualifying for a holiday — a share of one week's full pay proportionate to that period, which is why this table records the payout as conditional rather than automatic.
When employment ends, untaken leave is normally paid for. Only from six months' service: section 18(4) pays a proportion of one week's full pay to a worker who leaves having completed at least six months, or at least six months since last qualifying for a holiday. Compare the United States, where whether unused time is paid out depends entirely on which state the employee works in.
If you run a team in Nigeria
- Write the entitlement into every contract. At least 6 days; more is fine, less is void. Collective agreements may add to it.
- Track accrual and carryover to the day, with a record of every approval. When someone leaves, the untaken balance is money you owe, and you will need to show how you got to the number.
- Budget for the payout. Every unused day on the books is a liability at that person's current pay rate — it does not disappear at year end.
If you work in Nigeria
- Check your contract gives at least 6 days. Anything less is unenforceable.
- Keep your own record of approved leave. Payroll systems get changed; your notes don't.
- When you leave, untaken leave is normally paid for — check the conditions above and keep your own record of what you were owed.
Countries with the same 6-day minimum
Calculating an employee's balance
Entitlement is the starting point; the working number is what an individual has actually accrued at a given date. Our accrual calculator converts an annual entitlement into a per-pay-period figure and a current balance.
Tracking Nigeria leave correctly
Because untaken leave is money the employer owes, the balance has to be provable. Spreadsheets fail at exactly the moment they matter — when someone disputes what they were owed on their last day and nobody can reconstruct the record.
For a single-country team, Leavo handles Nigeria accrual rules, carryover and approvals with a full audit trail. If you employ people in more than one country, statutory entitlements, carryover rules and payout obligations differ in every one — that is the case for a platform like Deel that handles multi-country employment rather than leave alone. We compare the options in our leave management software guide.
Nigeria annual leave: common questions
How many paid annual leave days are employees entitled to in Nigeria?
6 working days is the statutory minimum in Nigeria, equivalent to 1.2 weeks on a five-day working week, under Labour Act, Cap. L1, LFN 2004, s.18. Employers and collective agreements may grant more, never less.
Must unused annual leave be paid out when employment ends in Nigeria?
Usually. Only from six months' service: section 18(4) pays a proportion of one week's full pay to a worker who leaves having completed at least six months, or at least six months since last qualifying for a holiday. During employment, statutory leave is meant to be taken as time off rather than exchanged for cash.
Can an employer in Nigeria refuse a leave request?
An employer can usually influence when leave is taken for operational reasons, but cannot deny the entitlement itself. The right to the minimum number of days is statutory and cannot be contracted away.
Do public holidays count towards the 6-day entitlement in Nigeria?
No. Public holidays are separate from the 6-day statutory annual leave entitlement in Nigeria.
Source
Primary source: Labour Act, Cap. L1, LFN 2004, s.18. Statutory minimums change, and collective agreements frequently exceed them — confirm against the current text before acting. See our methodology.