Working in the global lingua franca (which isn’t Italian)

Nigeria and South Africa have at least one thing in common: both have multiple language groups that can't communicate in their first tongue.  SA's answer was to institute 11 national languages, though English, Zulu, and Afrikans dominate.  Nigeria's answer was different: one national language (English).  From my experience so far it seems that conversational English is more universal in Nigeria than in South Africa.  (I read somewhere that only about 60% of SAs speak English, but I couldn't find anything to back that up.  Only ~9% speak it is a native language.)  A South African I work with agreed.  The degree/quality of that English varies, but everyone I've met can have a basic conversation.  However, everyone I've encountered is likely to have better English than the norm (hotels, international company, service industries like car drivers who interact with foreigners, etc.).

 

Nigeria recently started a national oral English exam (previously it was just written).  One client complained because now people speak English in their homes so that kids learn it better growing up, and he says it is hurting kids' cultural identities.

Courtyard in the Abuja Sheraton.  Not great as a hotel, but it is a "campus" with space to roam.