Kabba

Kabba is a city in North Central Nigeria. Kabba is a notable trading point for coffee, cocoa, yams, cassava, maize, sorghum, shea nuts, peanuts, beans, woven cloth and cotton produced by the Yoruba, Ebira, and other communities neighbouring the area.

Understand

Kabba is a town in Kogi state, north-central region of Nigeria. The area lies close to the Osse River, at the junction of roads from Lokoja, Okene, Ikare, Ado-Ekiti, and Egbe. Kabba is notable as a trade centre for the people and visitors that reside in Kabba. The area has an elevation of 1,300 feet (about 400 m).

Kabba is one of the most popular provinces in Kogi state. The Kabba tribe is one of the major ethnic groups in Kogi. Kabba is also the headquarters of the Kabba/Bunnu local government area of Kogi state.

Kabba is otherwise called Kabba Oloke meta (cover with three mountains) mainly because of three communities. Odolu, Katu and Kabba are the three major communities that make up the tribe.

The title of a king in Kabba is called Obaro. The Kabba Kingdom has a ruling structure that was set up by a king called Obaro Odide. This ruling system was maintained by the people of Kabba.

Kabba is a trade hub for crops such as yams, cassava, maize, sorghum, shea nuts, groundnuts, beans, woven cloth and cotton which they produce together with the people of Yoruba and Igbira neighbouring the area.

As at 2006 population census in the local government area, the area has an estimated population of 145,446.

Kabba people speak a dialect of the Yoruba Language called Owe.

Get in

By plane

• 1 Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport (ABV ^IATA). International flights to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport are offered by several airlines, notably, Lufthansa, KLM, and British Airways. If arriving from the US, Delta Air Lines has a direct flight from New York JFK. Many visitors fly through connecting flights from Lagos.  

By bus

You can travel to Kogi State by bus from major cities like Abuja, Lagos, Benin, Kano and Port Harcourt. Transportation company(s) such as ABC Transport (with air-conditioned luxurious bus rides), God is Good Motors (GIGM), Big Joe Motors, Chisco Transport (CTN) and Young Shall Grow, etc, all provide transport services from other parts of the country to Kogi State.

By train

• 2 Itakpe Train Station Nigeria Railway Corporation has completed an inter-city line between Kogi, Abuja and Kaduna, where you can connect with the rest of the Nigerian rail system. Trains arrive and depart from Itakpe. The train service offers three types of such as Economy, First Class and Sleeper. The schedules and current fairs can be found on the Nigeria Railway Corporation website.

Kabba does not have an airport. The closest airport to Kabba is Akure Airport (AKR) in Akure, Ondo state. The distance from Akure Airport to Kabba is approximately 67 miles/107 km, thus, the closest international airport is the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

Get around

The most popular means of getting around Kabba include:

• Commercial buses
• Chatter taxi/cabs
• Tricycles, usually referred to as Keke Napep and
• Motorcycles

See

There are interesting fun sites in Kabba town for visitors and travellers to explore. Some of these place include:

• Obangogo Hills, The Obangogo Hill is situated in Egunbe community Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State. It is 5 km off the Okene – Kabba Express Way by the permanent site of College of Education (Technical), Gbeleko.

An agricultural college and a teacher-training college for women were established in 1963 are also located in the town.

• Nike Art Centre & Workshop, Ogidi-Ijumu, Kabba 261101 Nigeria. Art Galleries. (updated Dec 2021)
• 1 Kabba College Of Agriculture (Kca), Kabba-Ilorin Highway, ☏ +234 8162998001, info@coakabba.net. Mondays to Fridays 8 am–6 pm. It's a college of agriculture located in Kabba at Kogi state. (updated Jul 2024)

Do

There are a couple of interesting festivals and events that take place in Kabba town. Some of these festivals include:

• Oro Festival; The festival is an event celebrated by virtually all the towns and communities of Yoruba descent with Kabba iclusive.

• The new yam festival; This festival takes place annually. It is used to appease the gods of the land to bring more prosperity and bountiful harvest to the people. The festival normally lasts for 2 days during which business activities are shut down in order to honour the celebration proper.
• Kabba Day Festival; Kabba Day is an annual meeting in Kabba of the indigenes of the town both from home and in Diaspora for the sole aim of celebrating their cultural heritage and consolidating their unity for the growth and progress of the town and its people as a whole,

Buy

The commodities markets also perform buying and selling functions for both travellers and inhabitants of the town. Prominent among the markets where visitors can easily go to and purchase various kinds of items which they need include:

• Araromi market
• Odogi market and
• Obelle market. These markets are open daily and they sell quite affordable and pocket friendly commodities to meet peoples' dailay needs.

Mokahe is another market in the town but it functions basically as an evening market.

Eat

Food eaten by the people of Kabba is very indigenous. Most of these meals are prepared with beans.

Examples are:

• Ajiere, This is prepared by boiling beans, sieving them dry and then frying them in palm oil.
• Popolo, bean cake fried in Palm kernel oil.
• Akara papa, ground Guinea corn to form a paste, moulding it into shapes and then frying it in palm oil.

Sleep

Kabba town has a good number of Hotel accommodation options for visitors and travellers in the area. Notable among them include:

• 1 Golden Grand Royal Hotel, Cardinal John Onayekan Street , Oke-Padi, Kabba. (updated Jun 2021)
• 2 Hotel Chavid, Ayetoro Gbede, Otun Quaters, Kabba. (updated Jun 2021)

• 3 Lisa Palms hotel, 1 okene road obajana junction, Kabba, ☏ +234 812 296 5074. (updated Jun 2021)
• 4 Top Klass Hotel, Kabba - Ilorin Road, Kabba. (updated Jun 2021)
• 5 Magbadun Hotel & Garden, Sited at Odolu Quarters, Kabba. (updated Jun 2021)
• 6 Hotel Ajidahun, No. 200 F Odolu Quarters, Kabba. (updated Jun 2021)
• Bamistol Hotel, No 112 Gowon Road, Kabba, Kabba. (updated Jun 2021)

Connect

Most locations in Kabba have 2G/3G/4G mobile network coverage. Service may be disrupted the farther you go away from the town center, and you might occasionally experience network outage for all or some of the mobile phone service providers while in remote areas of the town. Different networks also tend to be more stable and reliable in different locations of the town at different times.

if you are planning a visit to this town, you should probably consider having multiple SIM cards preferably for all the mobile service providers, since you can't tell which will be more stable and reliable at a time in your location during your visit. And if you will risk not having any of them, you might be better off not risking the MTN network, because, from indications, it seems to perform well than the others, though its rates may be high and its offers and services might be stringent, but you are less likely to be concerned of erratic voice and data connection compared to others.

Of the service providers is Glo (or Globacom), which boasts of fast network speed for internet browsing activities, but that might not be enjoyable in some locations in Kabba. Airtel is fairly satisfactory for all you might need to connect to the world, including rates and network stability. And 9mobile usually also performs well in internet browsing speed but not without locational limitations.