Archery · Careers
How to build an archery career in Nigeria
From your first arrow at a club to the national team, the coaching badge and the judge's whistle: every step, the rules that protect you and honest advice on money.
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Careers in archery
Your road into Nigerian archery
Ten years ago most Nigerians had never held a modern bow. Today the country has African champions, a National Open that draws archers from all over the federation, and clubs in Lagos, Abuja and Jos teaching children and adults every weekend. In July 2026 Nigeria's largest ever archery team won seven medals at the African Championships in Oran, including the country's first African title. Archery in Nigeria is young, and that is exactly why the door is wide open.
This page is written for young Nigerians, parents, teachers and anyone who wants to work in archery: as an archer, a coach, a judge or a club builder. It explains how to start, how the pathway to the national team works, what the rules on safety and anti-doping say, how archers really fund themselves, and the qualifications that turn a hobby into a profession. Every fact was checked on 1 October 2026.
One honest truth first: nobody in Nigeria earns a full-time living from shooting arrows alone. Our best archers are students, soldiers, professionals and club founders who shoot at a high level as well. What archery does offer is something rare: a sport where a newcomer can reach the national team within a few years, and where every coaching and judging badge you earn is badly needed.
Career facts · Checked 1 October 2026
Nigerian archery careers in numbers
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7
Medals at Oran 2026
1 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze: Nigeria's best African Championships.
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87
Archers at the 2026 National Open
From 9 clubs, with new under-18 events.
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26+
Clubs and academies
Privately owned, as listed by NAFED.
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2028
Compound at the Olympics
Los Angeles adds a style Nigerians already medal in.
The pathway at a glance
Six stages from first arrow to national team
Archery welcomes late starters. Several of Nigeria's best archers began as adults.
Any age
Have a go
Book a beginner session at a club. Archery suits all body types, and many Nigerian champions started as adults.
Age 10 and up
Join a club and learn safely
Learn range safety and basic form from a coach at a registered club such as ZEN, ARCH or Lekki Archers.
Age 12 to 17
School and junior events
Schools such as Regent, Chrisland and Al-Hidaayah sent young archers to the 2025 ARCH Open. Under-18 events joined the 2026 National Open.
Age 15 and up
National championships
The NAFED National Open in Abuja is where records fall and national selectors watch.
Age 16 and up
National team
African Championships and the TIZOCATA zone tournament. Nigeria sent 18 archers to Oran in 2026.
Any age
Coach, judge or club builder
World Archery coaching courses and NAFED judging courses turn experience into a profession.
Step by step
Seven steps to an archery career
Follow these in order. Safety and registration come before medals.
Try archery at a registered club
Archery needs a proper range, safe equipment and a coach, so do not start alone in the backyard. The Nigeria Archery Federation (NAFED) says more than 26 privately owned archery clubs and academies now operate across Nigeria. Clubs named on our pages include:
- ZEN Archery Club, Lagos: top club at the 2026 National Open with 6 gold medals.
- ARCH Archery Club and Academy, Abuja: organiser of the ARCH Archery International Open.
- Lekki Archers Club, in partnership with Pinefield School, Lekki.
- Rayfield Archery, Jos, and the Nigerian Army, Defence and Police archery clubs.
NAFED also runs a Beginners Training Open Camp; its 2026 edition was listed for 2 to 5 September in the federation's calendar. Ask the federation when the next one is.
Choose your bow style
Nigerian archers shoot three styles, and each has its own competitions:
- Recurve: the Olympic bow, shot at 70 metres in senior events.
- Compound: the bow with pulleys and a magnified sight. It joins the Olympic programme at Los Angeles 2028, and Nigeria's men have won African team medals in it.
- Barebow: no sight and no stabilisers, pure instinct and form. Nigeria's women won the country's first African title in barebow in 2026.
Most clubs start beginners on simple recurve or barebow equipment. Do not buy an expensive bow until a coach has measured your draw length and you know which style you love.
Join NAFED and get on the ranking list
The federation's website has a Join NAFED membership portal. According to NAFED, membership gives access to sanctioned events, official rankings, professional training and certification. Only results at recognised events count towards selection, so registration matters as much as scores.
Compete at home, then across the zone
Nigeria's archery calendar is growing fast:
- The NAFED National Open, Abuja (20 to 26 April 2026): a record 87 archers from 9 clubs, with new under-18 and developmental categories and national records in barebow, recurve and compound.
- The ARCH Archery International Open, Abuja: over 100 archers from 11 clubs in November 2025, with 20-metre events for newcomers alongside recurve 70m and barebow 50m.
- The Zen Archery Lagos International Open, June, with archers from five countries in 2026.
- The TIZOCATA International Open, the West and Central African zone tournament, hosted in Abuja from 8 to 11 October 2026.
Earn your national team place
Nigeria now wins medals at African level every year. At the 2026 African Championships in Oran, Nigeria's 18 archers won 1 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze, the country's best ever result. Faith Adekogbe, Mandu Eteidung and Precious Fanny-Amun won the women's barebow team title, beating Algeria 5-3. Selection follows performance at national events, so shoot in as many recognised competitions as you can and keep a record of your scores.
Aim for the first Nigerian Olympic archer
No Nigerian has yet shot at the Olympic Games. That is a challenge, not a closed door. The arrival of compound at Los Angeles 2028 adds a new style in which Nigerians already win African medals. Read our Olympic Games section to understand how Team Nigeria is selected.
Keep studying, and earn badges as you shoot
Damilola Sholademi, Nigeria's most decorated archer, taught himself in 2020 from online videos during the COVID-19 lockdown, co-founded a club, won African medals and is now studying for a PhD in the United States. Archery fits around education and a job. The sooner you add a coaching or judging qualification, the more useful you become to Nigerian archery.
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Money
Making a living: the honest picture
Let us be direct, because nobody else is: there is no published salary, wage or prize-money scale for archers in Nigeria, and we could not verify any figure for what a Nigerian archer earns. Here is what we could verify about how archers keep going.
| How archers fund themselves | What we could verify | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Paying their own way | Premium Times reported in March 2025 that many Nigerian archers self-fund their trips to international competitions | Premium Times, 2025 |
| Sponsorship | Club leaders publicly call for sponsors to help young archers with equipment, training and championship costs | Premium Times, November 2025 |
| Clubs and coaching | Leading archers have founded clubs: Damilola Sholademi co-founded ARCH in Abuja and Seun Emmanuel Oyeleke founded ZEN in Lagos | SitesNG archery pages |
| A career alongside the bow | Top archers include soldiers, police and civil defence officers, students and professionals | SitesNG archery pages |
Our advice: treat archery as a sport you build alongside your education or job. Keep receipts for equipment and travel, ask your club about shared equipment before you buy, and approach local companies with a written plan: which events you will shoot, what they cost and how you will promote a sponsor.
Beyond shooting
Coaching, judging and building clubs
Nigerian archery is growing faster than the number of qualified people who can run it. That makes coaching, judging and club building the most realistic archery careers in Nigeria today.
| Career | How to start in Nigeria | Next level |
|---|---|---|
| Coach | World Archery courses are booked only through your national federation, so start with NAFED. Level 1 is the entry-level certificate and needs an online module first. | Level 2 covers advanced technique, equipment tuning, biomechanics and psychology. World Archery also runs a three-month resident coach programme in Lausanne for experienced coaches. |
| Judge | The 2026 National Open launched a Level 1 Judges Development Programme, and NAFED's 2026 calendar listed a judges and coaching certification course in April. | National, then World Archery Africa events. |
| Club founder or academy owner | Learn from existing clubs: ZEN and ARCH were both started by archers. Ask NAFED how to register a club. | Hosting sanctioned tournaments, as ZEN and ARCH do. |
| Administrator | Volunteer at your club, your state association or a national tournament. | Federation roles: NAFED has directors for technical affairs, marketing and women's development. |
World Archery Level 1: the facts
When World Archery put its Level 1 coach course online in 2019, it set these conditions: candidates need at least two years of archery experience and must have competed in at least two events on an official member association calendar. The course has eight e-learning modules, followed by a shortened five-day practical workshop. Accreditation is valid for four years and is renewed with proof of activity and an online refresher. In other words: shoot first, compete, then coach.
Women's archery
Girls and women in archery
Archery is one of the few sports where Nigerian women have already won the country's biggest title. The women's barebow team of Faith Adekogbe, Mandu Eteidung and Precious Fanny-Amun won Nigeria's first African archery gold in July 2026, and Adekogbe added individual silver.
- Kachollom Enyenihi won compound bronze at the 2023 African Championships and is now NAFED's Director of Women Development.
- Hareke Evans won compound bronze at Oran 2026.
- Oyebola Folashade of the Nigerian Army won silver in the women's recurve 70m at the 2025 ARCH Open.
- Pioneers such as Seun Faleye of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps showed the way a decade ago.
Girls: archery rewards focus, patience and technique more than size or strength. Parents: ask the club about its coaches, its safety rules and how it supervises young archers. Read more on our national team and archers pages.
Stay safe
Safety, anti-doping and avoiding bad deals
A bow is a weapon. Every good archery career is built on three sets of rules.
Range safety
Only shoot on a supervised range, only when the coach or range officer says so, and never retrieve arrows until everyone has stopped shooting. Never draw a bow pointed at anything you do not mean to hit. Clubs that skip these basics are clubs to avoid.
Anti-doping
President Bola Tinubu signed Nigeria's National Anti-Doping Act in April 2025. It created the Nigeria Anti-Doping Centre to apply the World Anti-Doping Code, with testing in and out of competition. Archery has one special rule: beta-blockers, heart and blood-pressure medicines that steady the hands, are prohibited in archery. If a doctor prescribes any medicine, tell them you compete and check whether you need a therapeutic use exemption before your next event.
Before you spend money
- Confirm a club is known to NAFED before paying membership fees.
- Check a tournament is sanctioned by the federation: only sanctioned results count towards rankings and selection.
- Do not buy a high-end bow before a coach has fitted you: the wrong draw weight causes injury.
- Be wary of anyone selling “guaranteed” national team places or foreign trips. Selection is by performance.
- Parents: young archers should always be supervised by an adult coach on the range.
Para archers are welcome too: NAFED's 2026 calendar listed a para archery championship and training programme. See our Paralympics section for the wider para pathway.
Advice from the stars
What Nigerian archers want you to know
Every quote below was checked word for word against the outlet named under it. We add one practical lesson to each.
Archery crosses borders. It is a sport where someone can arrive as a stranger and leave as part of a community.
Damilola SholademiNigeria's most decorated archer and NAFED Technical Director
USA Archery, 17 March 2026The lesson: Join a club: the people around you will make you a better archer.
I didn't let it get to me, despite the physical and emotional trauma. I had to keep my gaze on what was at stake.
Damilola SholademiOn winning African silver at Oran 2026 with a borrowed bow
Premium Times, 28 July 2026The lesson: Archery is a mental sport: train your focus as hard as your form.
What the sport is lacking is resources and sponsorship. What we have now is the skills and manpower
Aliyu Garga AbubakarPresident of ARCH Archery Club, Abuja
Premium Times, 4 November 2025The lesson: Talent is not the problem: plan early how you will fund equipment and travel.
Archery in Nigeria is beginning to attract more archers and hopefully sponsors, which is what the community has been struggling with
Kachollom Enyenihi2023 African bronze medallist, then head of officiating at the ARCH Open
Premium Times, 4 November 2025The lesson: A growing sport needs judges and organisers as much as archers.
Your first move
Where to start this week
You can start this week. Tick these off:
- Find the nearest club on our archery pages, or ask NAFED through its website or info@nigeriaarcheryfederation.org.
- Book a supervised beginner session and learn the range safety rules.
- Try recurve and barebow before you decide on a style.
- Register with NAFED so your results count.
- Enter a recognised event: the National Open, the ARCH Open or the Lagos Open.
- Keep a score diary from your first session.
- Adults with two years' experience: ask NAFED about the next World Archery Level 1 coach course.
Full details of the federation are on our Contact Nigerian archery page, and the 2026 calendar is on Archery competitions in Nigeria.
Keep exploring
Explore Nigerian archery
Quick answers
Archery careers in Nigeria: your questions
How do I start archery in Nigeria?
Join a registered club with a qualified coach. NAFED says more than 26 privately owned clubs and academies operate in Nigeria, including ZEN Archery Club in Lagos, ARCH Archery Club and Academy in Abuja and Lekki Archers Club. NAFED also runs a beginners training camp.
Can I make a living from archery in Nigeria?
Not from competing alone. No salary or prize-money scale for Nigerian archers is published, and many archers self-fund international trips. People build careers around archery as coaches, judges, club founders and administrators, usually alongside education or another job.
Has a Nigerian archer competed at the Olympics?
Not yet. Nigeria's best results are at African level, including seven medals and a first African title at the 2026 African Championships in Oran. Compound archery joins the Olympic programme at Los Angeles 2028.
How do I become an archery coach in Nigeria?
Apply through NAFED, because World Archery courses are booked only through national federations. World Archery's Level 1 course requires at least two years of archery experience and two recognised competitions, an online module and a practical workshop.
How do I become an archery judge?
Ask NAFED about its judging courses. The 2026 National Open in Abuja introduced a Level 1 Judges Development Programme, and the federation's 2026 calendar listed a judges and coaching certification course.
Are any medicines banned in archery?
Yes. As well as the general anti-doping rules, beta-blockers are prohibited in archery. Nigeria's National Anti-Doping Act of 2025 created the Nigeria Anti-Doping Centre to apply the World Anti-Doping Code, so always check a medicine before you compete.
What age can I start archery?
Children and adults both start. Young archers from Regent School, Chrisland School and Al-Hidaayah Academy competed at the 2025 ARCH Open, and the 2026 National Open added under-18 events. Damilola Sholademi only started as an adult in 2020.