Nigerian University Games Association

NUGA was founded in 1966 at the University of Ibadan following the first West African University Games (WAUG) in Ibadan in 1965.

In 1966, the first Nigerian University Games was held at the University of Ibadan the five Universities in Nigeria at that time namely: University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; University of Lagos, Akoka and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Presently, there are over eighty Universities as members of NUGA and this cut across private and public (Federal and State) owned.^[5]

At the beginning, only very few sports were involved but the number of sports have over time grown to Eighteen namely: Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Chess, Cricket, E-sport, Football, Handball, Hockey, Judo, Karate, Scrabble, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis and Volleyball.

Over the years, many University athletes have represented Nigeria at various international competitions like the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.^[6] Some of the notable ones include Seyi Olofinjana (Football), Vincent Enyeama (Football), Bisi Afoloabi (Athletics), Olumide Oyedeji (Basketball), Chika Chukwumerije (Taekwondo) and Olusoji Fasuba (Athletics), who is the current African record holder in 100 metres (Men) with a time of 9.85 seconds.

It is pertinent to add that many more University athletes have turned professional after completing their University education.^[7][8]

In 1970, NUGA became a member of the World Federation of University Games (FISU), and in 1974 was a founding member of the All Africa University Games Association (FASU).^[9]

The number of gold medals won in the competition are written in parentheses.

Year	Host	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place
2025 (27th edition)	University of Jos	Benson Idahosa University (34)	University of Jos (50)	University of Benin (34)	Delta State University, Abraka (32)
2022 (26th edition)	University of Lagos	University of Port Harcourt (31)	University of Lagos (16)	Nile University of Nigeria (6)	Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (5)
2017 (25th edition) [10]	University of Agriculture, Makurdi	University of Port Harcourt (70)	Ahmadu Bello University (11)	Benson Idahosa University (10)	University of Lagos (9)
2014 (24th edition) [11][12]	Obafemi Awolowo University	University of Port Harcourt (63)	University of Lagos (13)	Obafemi Awolowo University (12)	Ahmadu Bello University (9)
2011 (23rd edition) [13]	University of Benin	University of Port Harcourt (46)	University of Nigeria (15)	Obafemi Awolowo University (13)	University of Benin (10)
2009 (22nd edition)	University of Nigeria Nsukka
2007 (21st edition)	University of Maiduguri
2004 (20th edition)	University of Port Harcourt
2002 (19th edition)	University of Ibadan
2001 (18th edition) [14]	Ahmadu Bello University	Ahmadu Bello University (40)	University of Port Harcourt (19)	University of Ibadan (13)	University of Benin (9)
1998 (17th edition)	University of Lagos
1997 (16th edition)	Bayero University Kano
1994 (15th edition)	Bayero University Kano
1992 (14th edition)	University of Ilorin
1990 (13th edition)	University of Calabar
1988 (12th edition)	University of Port Harcourt
1986 (11th edition)	University of Ibadan
1984 (10th edition)	Obafemi Awolowo University
1982 (9th edition)	Ahmadu Bello University
1980 (8th edition)	University of Benin
1978 (7th edition)	University of Lagos
1976 (6th edition)	University of Ibadan
1974 (5th edition)	University of Nigeria Nsukka
1972 (4th edition)	Ahmadu Bello University
1970 (3rd edition)	Obafemi Awolowo University
1968 (2nd edition)	University of Lagos
1966 (1st edition)	University of Ibadan