The Egbira of Nigeria

The Egbira of Nigeria, numbering approximately 2,395,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an agrarian Nupoid people of Kogi State who trace their descent to the Kwararafa confederation at Wukari, migrating out around 1680 AD after a chieftaincy dispute, with deeper roots tied to Central Nigeria's ancient Nok Iron Age culture. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Ebira is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Nigeria
People Cluster: Benue
Primary Language(s): Ebira (igb)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 2,395,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 5% or Greater but Less than 10% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG013314
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Pray for the Egbira 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.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

—
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Ebira
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Ebira Speakers

Media Resources in Ebira:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Ebira:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
1981 Bible Society of Nigeria✓

1 entry

Or check out the Ebira bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Egbira 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 Egbira:
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 Egbira of Nigeria

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
readExodus 2:23-24

As the lost among them labor, groan, and cry out under false religions and sin, pray God will have mercy on them and hear their cries, that He will be their Rescuer from the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of light.

Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
readPsalm 66:5

Pray that many here will come and see what the Creator God has done on their behalf.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
readPsalm 23:4

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will trust in the Lord's presence, even in the darkest valleys.

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessing.
read1 Corinthians 9:23

Ask God to give believers a deep desire to share the gospel with those who don't know the truth about God's redemption plan, and to provide them with opportunities to do so cross-culturally.

Igbirra Across Countries (ROP3 - 103962) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

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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