The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has officially announced the location for the Eket Nigeria Temple, which will be the country’s fourth. This announcement comes just 15 days after the news of the seventh Nigerian temple, the Uyo Nigeria Temple, was revealed.
The Eket Temple will feature a single-story structure spanning approximately 18,850 square feet, alongside a meetinghouse. According to the church’s official site map, the temple will be situated on a 7-acre plot on Eket/Oron Road in Ikot Ibiok, within the Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
This site announcement was made on Tuesday, April 22, via ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Additional details, including the groundbreaking date, will be shared in the future.
The Eket Nigeria Temple was first announced by Church President Russell M. Nelson during the October 2022 General Conference. At present, Nigeria is home to just one operating temple, the Aba Nigeria Temple, which was dedicated on August 7, 2005, by the late Church President Gordon B. Hinckley.
Two additional Nigerian temples, the Lagos Nigeria Temple and the Benin City Nigeria Temple, are set to break ground next month, with groundbreaking ceremonies scheduled for May 10 and May 24, respectively. Furthermore, three more temples are currently in the planning stages, including those in Calabar (announced in 2023), Abuja (2024), and Uyo (2025).
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially established a presence in Nigeria in 1978. By 1987, less than a decade later, membership had grown to nearly 10,000. Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles organized the first stake in West Africa, the Aba Nigeria Stake, on May 15, 1988.
When the Aba Temple was dedicated in 2005, an estimated 70,000 members resided in Nigeria. Today, more than 250,000 Latter-day Saints are part of over 840 congregations across the country.
