6 Best B2B Databases for Nigeria in 2026

A B2B database for Nigeria is a searchable store of Nigerian business contacts and companies. You export it or pull it by API. Sales teams, agencies and data engineers selling into Africa's largest economy need one. Most global vendors do not say how much of Nigeria they hold.

The gap is easy to see. Only People Data Labs prints a Nigeria figure. ZoomInfo prints only a continent total. Lusha prints worldwide totals only, and Apollo and Cognism print nothing. So the first number you trust should come from a free count, not a sales page.

This page ranks six databases on Nigeria alone, with list prices checked in September 2026 and one real count we ran ourselves. Read each rival on its own page: Lusha, ZoomInfo, Apollo, People Data Labs and Cognism. For the wider region, see best B2B data providers for Africa and Kenya and East Africa.

TL;DR

"1M records" means 1M work-email lookups that return a result, at list price.

What we evaluated

• Published Nigeria coverage: a figure for Nigeria itself, with a source we can link.
• Free Nigeria test: whether you can size a Nigerian audience, or test your own list, before you pay.
• Email and phone depth: whether the figure counts contacts with a usable email or only profiles.
• API and MCP: whether an agent or script can pull Nigerian records directly.
• Price at volume: flat, credits, seats or quote, and the cost of 1M records.

We ran our own counts on LeadOcean. We ran no query on the rivals, so we print no hit rates for them. Vendor figures are vendor claims, and each vendor counts "contacts" its own way.

The test: size Nigeria for free

On 2026-10-21 we ran count_leads with country set to NG. It spends no records. Three counts came back, and each means something different.

The mailable 213,509 people sit in 23,661 distinct companies. That is the number a cold-email team should plan around, not the 3.7M headline. Run the same test on any rival's free tier with 25 Nigerian contacts you really sell to, then count how many return a work email and a phone.

1. LeadOcean: best for API and agent buyers

LeadOcean holds 693M people and 67M companies, and Nigeria is a country filter value (NG) among 254. Our count on 2026-10-21 found 3,748,676 people in Nigeria, of whom 213,509 have a verified or catch-all email and 128,173 have a phone number. The sizing call spends no records.

Nigeria is a mid-sized slice. The mailable share is about 6% of the Nigerian people count, so plan on a list of a few hundred thousand, not millions. Phones are thinner still. The REST call below sizes your own slice, with count=true as a query parameter.

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search?count=true&limit=1" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"country": ["NG"], "jobLevel": ["C-Team"], "emailStatus": ["verified", "catch_all_valid", "catch_all"]}'

The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp exposes 13 tools, including the free leadocean_count_leads, and signs in with OAuth 2.1. Ask an agent for "mailable C-Team people in Nigeria" and it counts before it spends.

Pros

• A free, exact count for Nigeria, with email status, job level and phone filters.
• Agency is $497 a month flat, with 200 requests a second, 5 keys and no credit meter.
• REST and MCP on every plan, Free included.
• Nigeria is filterable by title, seniority, industry and company size in one call.

Cons

• No rep workspace, sequencer, dialer or CRM.
• Phones in Nigeria are limited (128,173 people), and v2 contact lookups cost a record even on a miss.
• Free is 1,000 records for life with no bulk CSV export, so a large pull needs Solo or Agency.

Best for: engineers, agencies and agents that sell into Nigeria at volume and want a fixed bill.

Pricing: Free is 1,000 records for life, no card. Solo is $97 a month, Agency $497 and Platform $1,997 (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026).

2. Lusha: best for small batches with email and phone

Lusha prints no Nigeria figure. Its data page shows worldwide totals only: 515M+ contacts, 29M+ companies and 165M+ verified emails (Lusha data page, October 2026). Nigeria is untested until you try it.

An email costs 1 credit and a phone 5 (Lusha API docs, September 2026). The MCP server has 50 tools and shares the API credit pool (Lusha MCP docs, September 2026).

Nigeria test. Lusha Free gives 40 credits a month, enough to look up 25 Nigerian contacts and read the hit rate yourself. Search through the API is capped at 100 requests a day on Free.

Pros

• Email, phone and company data in one lookup.
• Every plan includes an API key, Free included.
• MCP server with 50 tools.

Cons

• Credits end at a small plan: Premium tops out at 10,000 a month, and 1M work emails by bulk API is 1,040,000 credits.
• No public 1M price, and Scale is custom.
• No Nigeria figure on its data page.

Best for: small teams that look up Nigerian contacts in batches.

Pricing: Free $0 for 40 credits a month. Starter $49.90 a month ($37.45 billed yearly). Pro $69.90 ($52.45). Premium $399.90 ($299.95) (Lusha pricing, September 2026).

3. ZoomInfo: best for African mobile numbers

ZoomInfo prints an Africa row, not a Nigeria row. It shows 824K+ companies, 18.1M+ contacts and 2.8M+ mobiles (ZoomInfo data page, October 2026). We found no Nigeria figure, so the Nigerian share is unknown until you filter.

Its pay-as-you-go product, GTM AI, sells data credits from $20. A credit costs $0.45 at 100 credits and $0.25 at 100,000. Search and lookup are free, and a record is charged once per 12 months (GTM AI pricing, September 2026; GTM AI docs, September 2026).

Nigeria test. GTM AI Free includes 1,000 data credits, no card. Because search is free, filter to Nigeria first and spend credits only on rows you keep. ZoomInfo has an official MCP server (GTM AI docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Published African figures for companies, contacts and mobiles.
• Free search, with a record charged once a year.
• Official MCP server and a free tier with API access.

Cons

• No Nigeria-only figure on the data page.
• The public slider stops at 100,000 credits, so 1M is an Enterprise talk.
• 2.8M mobiles is a small share of 18.1M contacts.

Best for: teams that need African mobile numbers and accept a sales call at volume.

Pricing: GTM AI pay as you go from $20, with 1,000 free data credits at signup (GTM AI pricing, September 2026).

4. Apollo: best for reps who also need sequences and a dialer

Apollo prints no Nigeria figure that we could find. You can measure it yourself, because Apollo's people search costs 0 credits and returns a total_entries count (Apollo API docs, September 2026).

Filter with person_locations[] set to Nigeria. The search shows at most 50,000 records, 100 a page. An email costs 1 credit and a phone 8, and credits are per seat (Apollo API pricing, September 2026).

Nigeria test. Apollo Free gives 75 credits a month and an API key. Read total_entries for Nigeria, then spend credits on your own 25 contacts. The MCP server is at mcp.apollo.io and works on any plan (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Free, countable search with a location filter.
• Sequences, dialer and rep workspace in one product.
• Official MCP server on every plan, Free included.

Cons

• No published Nigeria figure, so the first number comes from your own test.
• A phone costs 8 credits, and 1M emails needs about 250 seats.
• Credits expire each billing cycle and do not roll over.

Best for: sales reps who want Nigerian search and outreach in one workspace.

Pricing: Basic $65 per seat a month ($49 billed yearly), Professional $99 ($79), Organization $149 ($119, three seats minimum) (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

5. People Data Labs: best for licensed profiles

People Data Labs (PDL) lists 6,970,731 records for Nigeria, second in Africa after South Africa (PDL country stats, October 2026). PDL says the dataset has a rate of duplication.

These are profiles, not mailable contacts. Globally, 592,376,573 of 2,466,510,427 profiles carry an email, about 24% (PDL dataset stats, September 2026). Expect the Nigerian email share to be a fraction of 6,970,731.

Nigeria test. PDL Free gives up to 100 credits a month, but contact data is obscured. Use it to test match rate on your 25 contacts, not emails. Person Search allows 10 requests a minute, and each record returned is one credit (PDL usage limits, September 2026).

Pros

• A Nigeria row in a public country table.
• Dataset licences for your own warehouse.
• Enrichment allows 1,000 calls a minute on paid plans.

Cons

• The Nigeria count is profiles, with duplicates, not contacts with emails.
• No official MCP server in its docs index (PDL docs, September 2026).
• Above 100,000 records you go to an Enterprise quote.

Best for: teams that license Nigerian profiles into a warehouse and find emails elsewhere.

Pricing: Free up to 100 credits a month. Pro from $98 a month for 350 credits, or $78 a month billed yearly (PDL pricing, September 2026).

6. Cognism: best for Europe-first teams with a small Nigeria list

Cognism publishes no Nigeria figure. Its EMEA page names the UK, DACH, Benelux, the Nordics, France and Spain, and says nothing about Nigeria (Cognism EMEA data, September 2026). Treat Nigeria as untested until you see a sample.

The pricing page lists Standard and Pro with tailored pricing and no dollar figure (Cognism pricing, September 2026). One credit reveals one contact.

Nigeria test. Ask sales to run your 25 Nigerian contacts before you sign, and ask for the hit rate. The MCP server has 15 tools for search, count and dictionary lookups (Cognism docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Deep European coverage if Nigeria is a small part of the plan.
• API and MCP server on the same credits.
• A revealed contact is not charged again unless the person changes jobs.

Cons

• No Nigeria figure and no African country named.
• No public price at any volume, so 1M cannot be priced.
• API and MCP need a package that includes them.

Best for: EMEA sales teams that sell mostly in Europe and want a few Nigerian accounts.

Pricing: No public price. Standard and Pro are quote only (Cognism pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

How to choose

• You pull Nigeria through an API or an agent: pick LeadOcean. A free count, email status filters and Agency at $497 a month flat fit volume work.
• You look up email and phone in small batches: pick Lusha, then test 25 of your own contacts for email hits.
• You need mobile numbers for African accounts: pick ZoomInfo, the only one here that prints an African mobile figure.
• Your reps need a workspace and Nigeria is one market: pick Apollo, and read total_entries first.
• You license profiles into a warehouse: pick People Data Labs and find emails with another source.
• Europe is the plan and Nigeria is a side list: pick Cognism, and demand a sample before you sign.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for API, agent and volume buyers, because it gives a free, exact Nigeria count with email and phone filters. Agency is $497 a month flat. Lusha wins for small batches, ZoomInfo for African mobile numbers, and Apollo for reps who want search and outreach in one workspace. People Data Labs wins for licensed profiles and the only published Nigeria count, and Cognism for Europe-first teams. Run the 25-contact test before you pay anyone, LeadOcean included.

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