How much does it cost to live in Benin City as a digital nomad?

A single person typically spends about $1,050 per month in Benin City (a country-level estimate for Nigeria). That is a 72/100 cost score, where 100 is the cheapest city in the dataset.

Is Benin City safe for digital nomads?

Benin City scores 20/100 on safety. Nigeria records 15.75 homicides per 100,000 people per year (WHO, 2023) and a political-stability score of 35.1/100 (World Bank WGI). Both figures are national, so neighbourhood-level risk can differ.

Does Nigeria have a digital nomad visa?

No dedicated digital nomad visa was listed for Nigeria as of 2026-07. Visitors from the US need an e-visa, applied for online.

How fast is the internet in Benin City?

Measured median download speed in Benin City was 4 Mbps (upload 2.6 Mbps) across 959 M-Lab tests in 2024. Measured speeds run below advertised plan speeds everywhere, so compare cities rather than reading the number as a plan.

Is Starlink available in Benin City?

Yes. Starlink's availability map lists residential service as available in Nigeria (checked 2026-10), so a dish can serve as a backup line in Benin City. Check the exact address on starlink.com before ordering, since capacity varies by area.

Which airports serve Benin City and how many nonstop flights are there?

Benin City is served by Benin Airport (BNI) with 3 nonstop destinations, of which 0 are international. 0 US airports have a nonstop link. Source: Wikipedia, 2026-10.

When is the best time of year to be in Benin City?

The most comfortable months are Jan, Feb, Dec. Mean temperatures range from 76°F (24°C) in Aug to 80°F (27°C) in Mar (NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology).

Benin City or Port Harcourt: which is better for digital nomads?

Port Harcourt is the city with the closest factor profile to Benin City in this dataset. Which one wins depends on your weights; the comparison page puts every factor side by side with the numbers behind them.

Photo: Faithfulness Opadeji · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Benin City

Nigeria · Africa · 1,770,251 people · Africa/Lagos · NGN

Benin City scores 29.1/100 for digital nomads under balanced weights, ranking 1494 of 1501 cities. Expect about $1,050 per month (country-level estimate), no dedicated nomad visa, and a measured median download speed of 4 Mbps.

Benin City is the capital of Edo State and the old seat of the Kingdom of Benin, whose Oba still holds court and whose bronze-casting guild still works on Igun Street, with returned bronzes driving new museum projects. It is a large, busy city with routine power cuts and slow internet, and foreign governments warn of kidnapping risk on Nigerian roads and advise against travel to several states.

Oba's palace and royal history
Bronze casters of Igun Street
Benin bronzes and new museums
Power cuts and road risks

Balanced score

out of 100

Vibe check

Cost8.0
Safety2.2
Health4.3
Internet3.3
Visa3.6
Mobility0.6
Climate2.8
Air0.0
QoL4.4

Rank 1,494 of 1,501 · its cost is a national estimate, so Top 10 lists rank it after cities with a local price

Rank with your own weights →Plan a trip to Benin City →

Monthly cost$1,050country estimate
Nomad visaNone listedUS passport: e-visa required
Internet4 Mbpsmeasured median
Comfortable months3 of 1259–82°F (15–28 °C), dry, not humid

For US nomads

US passport entry
e-visa required
check the consulate before booking
Time vs New York
6 hours ahead of New York
3h of a 9–6 day overlap with Eastern time
Time vs Los Angeles
9 hours ahead of Los Angeles
0h of a 9–6 day overlap with Pacific time
Non-stop from the US
0 US airports
Wikipedia, 2026-10

Prices are in US dollars. US citizens are taxed on worldwide income; the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and state residency rules are worth a look before a long stay.

Eating out

OpenStreetMap, 2026-11¹⁶

31restaurants within 3 km

Mapped around the centre of Benin City: few restaurants mapped, which can also mean thin map coverage. A count of what is on the map, not a rating, and it does not affect the score.

How Benin City scores, factor by factor

Superscripts link to the source list at the bottom. Country-level figures apply to all of Nigeria.

Cost of living

Monthly cost for one person (log-scaled, cheaper is better).

Monthly cost, one person: $1,050² · country-level, 2026-09
Central one-bedroom rent: no data³ · city-level, 2026-09 — no city-level rent row in the WhereToEmigrate dataset

Safety

Homicide rate and political stability (country-level).

Homicide rate: 15.75 per 100k⁴ · country-level, 2023
Political stability: 35.1/100⁵ · country-level, 2025

Healthcare

WHO universal-health-coverage index and life expectancy (country-level).

UHC service coverage: 47/100⁶ · country-level, 2023
Life expectancy: 62.9 years⁷ · country-level, 2023

Internet

Median measured download and upload speed (M-Lab, city-level; the province or country aggregate where the city has too few tests).

Median download: 4 Mbps⁸ · city-level, 2024
Median upload: 2.6 Mbps⁸ · city-level, 2024
Tests measured: 959⁸ · city-level, 2024
Starlink: Available⁹ · country-level, 2026-10, not scored

Visa ease

How easily your passport gets in and stays: visa-free days, eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa or consular visa, plus a nomad visa and how affordable its income threshold is. Averages US, EU and UK passports until you pick yours.

Nomad visa: none listed¹⁰
Entry, US passport: e-visa required¹¹ · country-level, 2026-02
Entry, EU passport: e-visa required¹¹ · country-level, 2026-02
Entry, UK passport: e-visa required¹¹ · country-level, 2026-02

Getting there & around

Non-stop airport destinations (hub size) plus editorial walkability and transit ratings.

Non-stop destinations from BNI: 3¹² · city-level, 2026-10
Walkability: 2/5¹³ · editorial, 2026-09
Public transit: 1/5¹³ · editorial, 2026-09

Climate

Share of months that are comfortable: 59–82°F (15–28 °C) mean, at most 5.9 in (150 mm) rain, at most 85% humidity.

Comfortable months: 3 of 12¹⁴ · city-level, 2001–2020 normals

Air quality

Annual mean PM2.5 on a fixed scale: 5 µg/m³ (WHO guideline) scores 100, 50 µg/m³ or worse scores 0.

Annual mean PM2.5: 52.1 µg/m³¹⁵ · city-level, 2023

Quality of life

Human Development Index and English proficiency (country-level).

Human Development Index: 0.560¹⁷ · country-level, 2023
English proficiency: high¹⁸ · country-level, 2024

What does Benin City cost per month?

Total, one person	$1,050	country estimate
One-bedroom rent, centre	no data	city-level rent unavailable
Country cost index (US = 100)	29	country

Can you stay legally?

Nomad visa	none listed
Minimum income	—
US passport	e-visa required
EU passport	e-visa required
UK passport	e-visa required

Visa rules change often. Verify with the issuing government before you book.

Do you pay tax here on income from abroad?

Tax status · Nigeria

Residents pay 0%–25% on worldwide income; renting a home in Nigeria can make you resident from day one

Worldwide income

Since 1 January 2026 the Nigeria Tax Act taxes residents on income from anywhere. Remote salary, freelance fees, foreign pensions and capital gains pay progressive rates from 0% to 25% (25% above ₦50,000,000). Foreign dividends, interest and rent are exempt only if brought into Nigeria through approved channels. Having a home available in Nigeria makes you resident without 183 days. There is no wealth or inheritance tax.

Remote work income
Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients
Taxed
0%–25% progressive
Investments and pensions
Dividends, interest, gains, rent and pensions from abroad
Taxed
0%–25% progressive; foreign dividends, interest and rent exempt if brought in through approved channels
Wealth
Net wealth and inheritance
No wealth tax
No inheritance tax

Tax resident after: 183 days a year
Top income tax rate: 25%

On the nomad visa

Nigeria has no digital nomad or remote-work visa. Short visits use the e-visa (tourism or business, usually 30 days), and longer stays need a temporary residence visa tied to a Nigerian employer or another listed purpose. A business e-visa does not allow employment in Nigeria. A short-stay visitor with no home available in Nigeria stays non-resident and owes no Nigerian tax on foreign pay as long as it is taxed in their country of residence. Anyone who rents a home or stays 183 days becomes resident and is taxed on worldwide income at 0%–25%.

Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients

Taxed0%–25% progressive

A resident's income is deemed to accrue in Nigeria wherever it arises and whether or not it is brought in (section 12), and employment income of a resident employee is Nigerian-derived (section 13(1)(a)). A salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients are therefore taxed at the Fourth Schedule rates: 0% on the first ₦800,000 of chargeable income, then 15%, 18%, 21%, 23% and 25% above ₦50,000,000. Chargeable income is after deductions such as pension, health-insurance and National Housing Fund contributions and a rent relief of 20% of rent paid, capped at ₦500,000 (section 30). Capital gains count as income in the same calculation, so there is no separate flat rate. Personal income tax is administered by the state where you live, not by the federal Nigeria Revenue Service (Nigeria Tax Administration Act, section 3(2) and First Schedule): a Lagos resident with a foreign employer files a self-assessment return with the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, since no Nigerian payer runs PAYE. Foreign tax on income from outside Nigeria is credited up to the Nigerian tax on it, even without a treaty (section 120). A non-resident who works in Nigeria for a foreign employer is taxed only if the pay is borne by a Nigerian employer or presence, or is not taxed in their country of residence (section 13(1)(b)). Pension and other social contributions for people paid by a foreign employer were not checked here.

On the nomad visa

Nigeria Tax Act, 2025 (Act No. 7), Official Gazette No. 117, Vol. 112, 26 June 2025 · Federal Government of Nigeria, hosted by the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service · read 2026-10-27
Commencement 1 January 2026; s. 4 (income chargeable, pensions, family income excluding inherited assets); s. 12 (resident individual's income taxed wherever it arises, whether or not brought in); s. 13 (employment income derived from Nigeria, non-resident rules); ss. 28 and 30 (total income including chargeable gains, eligible deductions, rent relief of 20% capped at ₦500,000); s. 34 (all property chargeable wherever situated, Nigerian-share thresholds of ₦150,000,000 and ₦10,000,000, foreign currency); ss. 51 and 54 (home exemption once in a lifetime, gifts); s. 58 and Fourth Schedule (0% to 25% above ₦50,000,000, minimum-wage earners excluded); s. 120 (unilateral foreign tax credit); s. 163(1)(i), (s) and (t) (Pension Reform Act pensions, foreign dividends, interest, rent and royalties brought in through approved channels, minimum wage); s. 202 (resident and non-resident individual, 183 days); stamp duty schedule (1.5% on conveyance on sale). This profile follows the gazetted text and did not compare it with the certified copies the National Assembly released in January 2026.
Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025 (Act No. 5), Official Gazette No. 117, Vol. 112, 26 June 2025 · Federal Government of Nigeria, hosted by the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service · read 2026-10-27
s. 3(2) and First Schedule (state tax authorities administer tax for resident individuals; residence in the state of the place of residence, including for foreign employments); s. 13 (annual self-assessment return by every taxable person); s. 147 ("Service" means the Nigeria Revenue Service established by the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act). The Act does not itself mention FIRS, so the hand-over from FIRS was not confirmed from an official text. The Nigeria Revenue Service site (nrs.gov.ng) sits behind a bot check and could not be read, and firs.gov.ng and fmf.gov.ng did not respond.
Tax Legislation · Lagos State Internal Revenue Service · read 2026-10-27
The Lagos tax authority publishes the gazetted Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 as current law. Its Tax Types page still describes the repealed Personal Income Tax Act and 10% capital gains tax, so it was not used for rates.
Nigerian Visa · Nigeria Immigration Service · read 2026-10-27
Short-visit e-visa categories (mostly 30 days), temporary residence visas up to 2 years tied to employment or other listed purposes, permanent residence categories; no digital nomad or remote-work visa; business e-visas do not permit employment

Not yet reviewed by a person · compiled from official pages read on 2026-10-27

General information, not tax advice. Tax treaties, your citizenship and your home country's exit rules can change the answer. US citizens are taxed by the US wherever they live.

Airports and nonstop flights

Benin City is served by one airport.

Airport	Nonstop destinations	International	From US airports
BNIBenin Airport	3	0	0

Wikipedia airport pages as of 2026-10: seasonal routes included, charters and announced-but-not-started routes excluded.

What is the weather like through the year?

Comfortable months by our rule: Dec–Feb. Rank cities for Dec–Feb →

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Mean °F	76	79	80	80	79	78	76	76	77	78	79	77
Rain in	0.6	1.4	2.8	5.5	6.6	9.3	9.4	8.9	11.9	8.2	2.9	0.7
Humidity %	75	83	88	90	91	92	91	91	92	91	87	79

Green temperatures mark months that meet the comfort rule (59–82°F, ≤5.9 in rain, ≤85% humidity). NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology at the city coordinates.

Where can you stay in Benin City?

Three ways to live here, and what each does to the monthly budget. Rents are the one-bedroom figures from the cost table; hotels and short lets are priced per night and cost more, most of all in high season.

Option	Rent per month	Monthly total	Notes
One-bedroom outside the centre	—	—	No city-level cost here; the total is a national estimate.
One-bedroom in the centre	—	—	No city-level rent figure for this city.
Hotel or short let	—	—	For the first weeks or a stay under a month. Compare hotels on Navoy →

Monthly rents assume an unfurnished lease of six months or more; furnished monthly lets usually cost 20 to 50 percent more.

Cities with a similar profile

Port Harcourt Nigeria · 30.5
Compare with Benin City →
Ibadan Nigeria · 35.2
Compare with Benin City →
Douala Cameroon · 26.5
Compare with Benin City →
Kano Nigeria · 34.4
Compare with Benin City →
Lagos Nigeria · 36.3
Compare with Benin City →

Also in Africa: Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Agadir, Alexandria

Ready to see Benin City for yourself?

Nostos tells you where. Navoy, the AI travel planner behind it, builds the trip: itineraries, places to stay and what to book before you land.

Plan a trip to Benin City →

Opens on navoy.io.

The vibe

What people post about living in Benin City, read for its mood. It is a reading of opinions, not a fact, and it is not part of the score.

Mixed · 50Only a single promotional video with almost no views and no real resident comments, so there is too little evidence to judge living there; the score stays near neutral.

Only one hotel promo exists here, with no firsthand accounts of daily life.
Treat this as a hotel ad, not a resident perspective on living in Benin City.

Read from 1 videos, 0 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-08; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.

Watch what people say

Frequently asked

How much does it cost to live in Benin City as a digital nomad?: A single person typically spends about $1,050 per month in Benin City (a country-level estimate for Nigeria). That is a 72/100 cost score, where 100 is the cheapest city in the dataset.
Is Benin City safe for digital nomads?: Benin City scores 20/100 on safety. Nigeria records 15.75 homicides per 100,000 people per year (WHO, 2023) and a political-stability score of 35.1/100 (World Bank WGI). Both figures are national, so neighbourhood-level risk can differ.
Does Nigeria have a digital nomad visa?: No dedicated digital nomad visa was listed for Nigeria as of 2026-07. Visitors from the US need an e-visa, applied for online.
How fast is the internet in Benin City?: Measured median download speed in Benin City was 4 Mbps (upload 2.6 Mbps) across 959 M-Lab tests in 2024. Measured speeds run below advertised plan speeds everywhere, so compare cities rather than reading the number as a plan.
Is Starlink available in Benin City?: Yes. Starlink's availability map lists residential service as available in Nigeria (checked 2026-10), so a dish can serve as a backup line in Benin City. Check the exact address on starlink.com before ordering, since capacity varies by area.
Which airports serve Benin City and how many nonstop flights are there?: Benin City is served by Benin Airport (BNI) with 3 nonstop destinations, of which 0 are international. 0 US airports have a nonstop link. Source: Wikipedia, 2026-10.
When is the best time of year to be in Benin City?: The most comfortable months are Jan, Feb, Dec. Mean temperatures range from 76°F (24°C) in Aug to 80°F (27°C) in Mar (NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology).
Benin City or Port Harcourt: which is better for digital nomads?: Port Harcourt is the city with the closest factor profile to Benin City in this dataset. Which one wins depends on your weights; the comparison page puts every factor side by side with the numbers behind them.

Sources

Dataset 2026.11.2, published 2026-11-09. Download the full dataset or read the methodology.

1.City population (latest census or official estimate), Wikipedia (citing national statistics offices). CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. City-proper figures; the per-city source URL is stored with the seed row.
2.2026 Cost of Living Index (country level), WhereNext. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Country-level monthly estimate used only where no city-level figure exists; cost_index kept for every city.
3.Cost of Living Global 2026 (city rows), WhereToEmigrate. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. monthly_cost_single_eur and rent_1br_center_eur, converted to USD at the ECB reference rate on the retrieval date (see ecb-frankfurter).
4.Victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population (national data, latest year), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, dataUNODC. UNODC data, free to reuse with attribution. Retrieved 2026-10-12. Police- or statistics-office-recorded rates reported to UNODC's crime-trends survey, latest year per country (2024 for most), both sexes, all ages; the United Kingdom uses England and Wales. Replaces the WHO modelled estimate wherever UNODC has a figure from 2018 or later; WHO's 2021 estimates ran several times above recorded figures for El Salvador and Honduras. Workbook data_cts_intentional_homicide.xlsx (July 2026) reduced by scripts/build-dataset/inputs/convert-unodc-homicide.py.
5.Worldwide Governance Indicators — Political Stability and Absence of Violence (score 0–100), World Bank. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
6.UHC service coverage index, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
7.Life expectancy at birth (years), both sexes, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
8.M-Lab NDT statistics (city aggregates, 2024), Measurement Lab. CC0 1.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Median of daily median download/upload throughput over 2024 for the city aggregate; sample count is the number of tests. Speeds reflect user-initiated tests, not advertised plans.
9.Starlink availability map, SpaceX (Starlink). Factual status cited from starlink.com. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Residential service status per country from the file Starlink's map loads. Grouped as on the map: launched or available = available; coming soon, pending regulatory approval or test = coming soon; blacklisted = not offered; unknown or excluded = unknown. Shown on city pages and as a ranker filter; not part of any score. Roaming and maritime plans can work in more places.
10.Digital Nomad Visas 2026, WhereToEmigrate. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Programme name, minimum monthly income (EUR, converted to USD) and whether it leads to permanent residence. Values are directional; verify with the issuing government.
11.Passport Index dataset (visa requirements, 199 passports × 199 destinations), Ilya Ilyankou (compiled from passportindex.org). MIT. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Days per visit where stated; 'visa free' without a limit is credited as unlimited; eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa and visa required are credited 0 days for scoring but shown by kind. The default US/EU/UK figures use the US, German and British passports.
12.Airport destinations (Wikipedia airline and destination tables), Wikipedia contributors; countries via Wikidata. CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-24. Distinct destination airports listed in each airport article's passenger table, resolved through Wikidata. Seasonal routes count; charters and routes announced but not yet flying are excluded. The as-of date is the newest article revision among the city's airports. Falls back to the OpenFlights snapshot when an airport has no article or table.
13.Walkability and transit ratings (editorial), Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Judgment ratings, not measurements. Explained on /methodology.
14.NASA POWER climatology (2001–2020 monthly means), NASA Langley Research Center. Public domain (US Government). Retrieved 2026-09-22. T2M, PRECTOTCORR and RH2M at the city coordinates (0.5° grid). Monthly precipitation = mm/day × days in month.
15.SatPM2.5 satellite-derived annual PM2.5 (V6.GL.02.04), Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group, Washington University in St. Louis. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Annual 2023 PM2.5 for the 0.1° grid cell at the city centre, from satellite aerosol retrievals combined with a chemical transport model and ground monitors. Used only for cities with no WHO database row. Where the same country has WHO-measured cities, values are scaled by the median measured/satellite ratio there (corrects desert-dust overestimates in the Gulf). Across 811 cities with both, log-correlation with WHO values is 0.89 and the median difference 2 µg/m³.
16.OpenStreetMap restaurants (Overpass API), OpenStreetMap contributors. ODbL 1.0. Retrieved 2026-10-02. Count of OpenStreetMap elements tagged amenity=restaurant within 3 km of the city centre coordinate. Measures how many restaurants are mapped, which tracks real density well where OpenStreetMap is well maintained (Europe, the Americas, East and Southeast Asia) and under-counts where it is not (parts of Africa and Central Asia).
17.Human Development Index (HDR 2025, HDI 2023), United Nations Development Programme. CC BY 3.0 IGO. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
18.EF English Proficiency Index 2024 (band), EF Education First. Proprietary; band cited as a fact with attribution. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Only the proficiency band is stored, transcribed by hand from the public ranking.

🇺🇸For US nomads