A claim that Abuja has been named Africa’s most beautiful city in 2025 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has surfaced on the internet.
The claim, by an X user, @abdullahayofel, was posted alongside photos of major landmarks and infrastructure in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
The post read:
Abuja, Nigeria has been named Africa’s most beautiful city in 2025, by BBC.
It has garnered over 180,000 views with over 500 comments, more than 2,300 likes and over 400 reposts as of May 16, 2025.
Thus, our fact-checker decided to verify the accuracy of the claim.
CLAIM
Abuja named Africa’s most beautiful city in 2025 by BBC.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE!
Keyword searches conducted by our fact-checker using phrases such as “Africa’s most beautiful city 2025,” “BBC ranking of African cities,” and “BBC Abuja most beautiful city” yielded no credible results to support the claim.
Also, no official report, article, or announcement was found on the BBC’s website or any of its verified social media accounts where such a ranking would typically be published. Moreover, the individual making the claim did not provide any link or source to substantiate it.
However, it is worth noting that Abuja and Lagos were previously featured in BBC reports on the most expensive cities to live in and least expensive cities for foreigners, appearing in rankings in both 2021 and 2024 respectively.
In addition, BBC Travel released its list of the 25 best places to travel in 2025 in January this year, in which only two African countries – Morocco and Botswana – made the list. Neither Abuja nor any Nigerian city was mentioned.
When The FactCheckHub reached out to the BBC Press Office via email, a spokesperson for the British media said the report is false and it was never reported by the BBC.
“This is false. BBC News did not publish this report. We encourage audiences to follow our extensive coverage via our official BBC Africa channels,” the email response, signed off by one Rebecca, read.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Abuja has been named Africa’s most beautiful city in 2025 by BBC is FALSE; the BBC debunked the claim.
This report is republished from the FactCheckHub.
Fatimah Quadri is a Journalist and a Fact-checker at The ICIR. She has written news articles, fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy in an effort to combat information disorder.
She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or fquadri@icirnigeria.org