Early human settlers had arrived in West Africa around 12,000 BCE, according to the findings of archaeological studies.

Microlithic stone industries have been found primarily in the region of the Savannah where pastoral tribes existed using chiseled stone blades and spears.

The tribesmen of Guinea and the forested regions of the coast were without microliths for thousands of years, but prospered using bone tools and other means.

Settlements are established at Akure in present-day southwest Nigeria around 8000 BCE.

Rock engravings dating back to the Mesolithic period have been discovered on the outskirts of Akure, as has the oldest Homo sapiens fossil to have been found in West Africa thus far, dating back to around eleven thousand years ago.