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The Ibani of Nigeria

The Ibani of Nigeria, numbering approximately 141,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an Ijaw people whose ancestors from the Kolokuma area of the Central Niger Delta founded the Bonny Kingdom around 1000 AD, first settling at Orupiri before relocating to Okoloama, with European traders later anglicizing their name Ibani into Bonny. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Ibani is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Ibani

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Nigeria
People Cluster: Ijaw
Primary Language(s): Ibani (iby)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 141,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG013835
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Pray for the Ibani of Nigeria

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

65%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Ibani
Language Family: Ijoid

100%
%
Ibani Speakers

Media Resources in Ibani:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Ibani:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Ibani bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Ibani are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Ibani:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Ibani of Nigeria

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
readRom 6:23

Pray that those who haven't heard yet will hear and believe that the wages of their sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
readPsalm 47:6

Pray that believers will have a heart to invite others to trust in Christ alone so that they might sing praises to His name.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
readIsaiah 9:6

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will rejoice in the coming of the Prince of Peace because He will bring everlasting peace and rule with justice and righteousness.

And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
readMatthew 25:40

Ask God to raise up and send believers who will serve "the least of these" with compassion and energy because they know that in serving those in need, they are serving Christ.

Ibani Across Countries (ROP3 - 103935) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
IbaniPG013835IbaniNigeria141,000No Longer UnreachedIbaniProtestantism

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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