From marathon cooking and chess to beauty, hair, gaming and a log-breaking Nollywood screening, these Nigerians have helped put the country on the Guinness World Records map.
2. Tunde Onakoya
She in time cooked for 93 hours and 11 minutes, earning the Guinness World Records title for the longest cooking marathon by an individual at the time.
In 2024, they achieved the title for the longest recording marathon alongside numerous artists, lasting 95 hours and 59 minutes.
Her story is particularly so striking because she did not enter the document books by abandoning her profession. She took the skill she already possessed — wigmaking — and pushed it to an extreme degree.
In September 2025, she and Gino Nigeria achieved the log for the largest serving of Nigerian-design jollof rice, producing an extraordinary 8,780 kg of jollof rice.
In 2023, the Nigerian wigmaker created a handmade wig measuring 351.28 metres, earning the Guinness World Records title for the longest handmade wig.
Clara Chizoba Kronborg
9.
On September 26, 2026, Black Promote drew over 51,000 people to Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos.
In May 2023, Hilda Bassey, popularly recognized as Hilda Baci, embarked on a cooking marathon in Lagos.
The Nigerian social media entrepreneur completed a 55-hour, 24-second interviewing marathon, earning the Guinness World Records title for the longest interviewing marathon.
The preceding document was 43,624 humans, fixed during a screening of Felix Manalo in the Philippines in 2015.
Guinness World Records confirmed that over 51,000 attendees watched the film from initiate to complete, making it the largest attendance at a film screening.
But Onakoya’s method into account breaking was not just around playing chess for as enduring as potential. That framework helped offer the file endeavor a larger social dimension. The feat demonstrated how a subjective skill could be associated to a cause larger than the file itself.
His effort using Chess in Slums Africa had already focused on applying chess to extend to children from underserved communities and shift forward education.
Understood initially to a wider Nigerian readers by method of Big Brother Naija, Tacha had built a substantial web-based following and expanded into entrepreneurship and beauty.
Oside Oluwole
8.
Few Nigerian Guinness World Records stories of the 2020s became as culturally important as Hilda Baci’s cook-a-thon.
She had seen the display account and decided that her skilled learn could grant her a uncertainty to query it.
Her expedition began enduring earlier than the file endeavor.Guinness reports that Chinonso had been involved in hairdressing and styling for concerning 10 years earlier than deciding to endeavor the document.
Clara Chizoba Kronborg found her path into the log books throughout conversation.
The thought came from her fascination including humans’s journeys and success stories. Rather than merely talking for 55 hours, she used the document endeavor as a platform to bring unlike community together and tell their stories.
It created a fresh Guinness World Records quantify.
Nollywood so did greater than organise a substantial premiere.
Samson Ajao turned reading into an endurance query.
For her account test, she interviewed 90 individuals from varied professions and nationalities, including entrepreneurs, politicians, actors, enterprise owners and material creators.
The Nigerian crocheter completed a 100-hour and 50-minute crocheting marathon, earning the Guinness World Records title for the longest marathon crocheting.
For Mary Chinonso, hairdressing was greater than a profession. It became her method to Guinness World Records recognition.
His endeavor attracted visitors and supporters, turning what began as an human being reading address into a society event.
Oluwole wanted to employ his document-breaking efforts to lift capital and awareness for people using spinal cord injuries.
In 2024, the Nigerian viewer completed 215 hours and two seconds of reading aloud, preference the Guinness World Records title for the longest marathon reading aloud.
Mary Chinonso
6.
Guinness says she took her opening steps in the kitchen at just five years aged although helping her mother in her restaurant.
Hilda’s relate including food began when she was a child. That premature exposure in conclusion developed into a skilled culinary career and, later, the account labor that made her internationally familiar.
Oside Oluwole Khoded proved that gaming could additionally produce a Guinness World Records moment.
Tunde Onakoya brought Nigerian chess to an cross-border viewers. The founder of Chess in Slums Africa became globally recognised following his extraordinary chess marathon in Recent York.
The labor brought together artists from varied parts of Nigeria for a marathon recording session. The account was not easily around one producer sitting in a studio.
But one log was not plenty.
Anita Natacha Akide, popularly understood as Tacha, entered the Guinness World Records conversation throughout an unexpected direction: makeup.
Guinness World Records has described Hilda as the individual whose cook-a-thon helped ignite a wave of file attempts across Africa. Applications from Nigerians surged following the publicity surrounding her bid and Hilda sooner or later returned to the file books.
Chidinma Modupe Okafor turned a inventive hobby into a gruelling endurance evaluate.
Tacha
3.
On March 24, 2024, the Lagos-based stylist braided 387 heads of hair in 24 hours, environment the Guinness World Records title for the most heads of hair braided in 24 hours by an someone.
5. Samson Ajao
His chosen game was Dream League Soccer. But there was a foundation behind the marathon.
In 2024, the Nigerian gamer completed a 100 hours and 4 minutes videogame marathon, earning the file for the longest videogame marathon playing a mobile game.
Guinness World Records credits the achievement to Damilola Osikoya, Change Visual Limited, Nora Awolowo and Rixel Studios.
The achievement surpassed the prior document of 43,624 humans.
Williams went on to establish supplementary records connected to wigmaking, including the widest wig and other hair-connected achievements.
That’s practically nine constant days. During the endeavor, Ajao read regarding 100 books, covering topics including assist, administration, guide, politics, health and mental wellness.
Kronborg, who grew up in Onitsha and later founded herself in Spain, hosts a talk present on YouTube.
The bid at remain became a significant group event, including volunteers lining up to have their hair braided whereas supporters encouraged her all by manner of the 24-hour query. She finished together with 387 clients — approximately one director every four minutes.
But his motivation went beyond breaking a document. Ajao said he wanted to support literacy and support Nigerians to progress a stronger reading culture.
11 Black Promote
Okafor had already developed a passion for crochet earlier than deciding to experiment how far she could push herself. The test required her to crochet continuously for extra than four days whereas following Guinness’ strict rest and monitoring rules.
It became a collaborative music event, including numerous artists contributing to the marathon.The achievement showed how Nigeria’s music business area was increasingly finding its own ways to participate alongside Guinness World Records and that brings us to the biggest entertainment document of them all.
Chidinma Modupe Okafor
7.
Guinness subsequently recognised Onakoya and American chess player Shawn Martinez for the longest chess marathon, later than they played for 64 hours in April 2025.
In April 2024, Onakoya played chess continuously for 60 hours in Times Square, Novel York, in an endeavor to collection a Guinness World Records file. The attempt involved 473 chess games.
Idem Abasifreke and Beatisblaak Studio brought Nigeria’s music-production scene into Guinness World Records.
The reality-TV personality, entrepreneur and influencer turned her interest to in beauty into a file attempt. In October 2025, she performed 144 cosmetic makeovers in 24 hours, officially preference the Guinness World Records title for the most cosmetic makeovers in 24 hours by an people.
But Black Trade did not emerge from nowhere. It arrived once years in which Nigerians repeatedly demonstrated that an unusual talent, profession or thought could become a world log.
10. Idem Abasifreke
Helen Williams
4.
On September 26, 2026, 51,000 individuals watched Black Handle at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos from initiate to finalize, giving the film and its organisers the Guinness World Records title for the largest attendance at a film screening.
Helen Williams showed that Nigerian entrepreneurship could produce some of the most unusual Guinness records of the decade.
Her expedition was partly inspired by the log-breaking atmosphere that followed Hilda Baci’s cook-a-thon.
The decade produced marathon cooks, readers, gamers, hairstylists, crocheters, musicians and entrepreneurs who transformed their skills and passions into extraordinary achievements.
According to Guinness, she continued functioning even when the electricity went off, using members of her staff utilizing phone flashlights to hold the operation going. Tacha’s event in Lagos was disrupted by a nine-hour storm and a lot of power outages.
The counter was notably difficult because of the conditions. Her entry into the account books additionally followed the trajectory of her career.
She moreover completed 82 makeovers in eight hours, earning another account in the process.
Terfa Ukende is a Nigerian travel writer, blogger, and the founder of Watch Nigeria. Combining an analytical background in Computer Science and Statistics from Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi (JOSTUM) with years of on-the-ground fieldwork, Terfa has crossed dozens of Nigerian cities—from Kano and Yola to Lagos and Port Harcourt. He founded Watch Nigeria to counter regurgitated travel advice with firsthand, independently verified reporting on routes, accommodations, and local culture. When not on the road, he is planning his next cross-country expedition.
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