A new report from Smart DNA Nigeria says 23.6% of paternity tests carried out during its 2025/2026 reporting period returned negative results, meaning the man tested was not the biological father.
The figure means roughly one in four paternity tests conducted by the company produced a negative result.
But Smart DNA says the finding should not be interpreted to mean that one in four Nigerian children is being raised by a man who is not their biological father.
The company published the figures in its latest annual DNA Testing Report, released in Lagos on Sunday.
The negative result rate has fallen slightly over the past three reporting periods.
It stood at 26.1% in 2023 and 24% in 2024/25, before dropping to 23.6% in 2025/26.
What the figures actually show
The most important limitation is the population being measured.
Smart DNA says its clients are not a random sample of Nigerian families.
They are people who have already developed doubts or have other reasons to seek a DNA test.
A person with no concerns about paternity is less likely to pay for a test than someone who already suspects that a biological relationship may not exist.
The report therefore provides information about people who sought testing at Smart DNA.
It does not establish the prevalence of non-paternity among Nigerian families generally.
This distinction matters because the 23.6% figure could otherwise be wrongly presented as evidence that 23.6% of Nigerian fathers are not biological fathers.
Smart DNA itself cautioned against that interpretation.
“Smart DNA’s clients are not a random sample of Nigerian society.”
The company also said: “Negative outcomes accounted for 23.6 per cent of all recorded results in the 2025/2026 period, marginally lower than 24.0 per cent in the preceding year.”
And it added: “The pattern has remained remarkably stable across three consecutive reporting periods: 26.1 per cent in 2023, 24.0 per cent in 2024/25, and 23.6 per cent in 2025/26.”
Most tests were for personal reasons
The report suggests that private concerns, rather than court cases or official procedures, account for most DNA testing.
About 87% of the tests were classified as “Peace of Mind” tests.
These are private tests undertaken by people seeking personal confirmation rather than for legal, immigration or court proceedings.
The proportion increased from 83.7% in the previous reporting period.
Immigration-related tests accounted for 9.7%, while legal tests made up 1.9%.
Avuncular tests accounted for 1% and prenatal tests 0.4%.
The figures suggest that DNA testing is increasingly being used as a private way of resolving questions about biological relationships.
They also show that the headline paternity figure sits within a wider DNA-testing market that includes immigration, legal and family-relationship cases.
Who is seeking the tests?
Older men made up most of the male clients whose ages were recorded.
Men aged 41 and above accounted for 48% of the classified male records, while those aged 31 to 40 accounted for 35.8%.
Together, men aged above 30 represented 83.8% of the male testing population.
The report does not, however, establish why older men were more likely to seek testing.
Any explanation would require additional research rather than assumptions based solely on the figures.
Lagos dominates testingLagos accounted for 75.1% of classified cases, up from 69% in the previous reporting period.
Ogun recorded the highest testing activity outside Lagos, followed by Delta, Oyo, Rivers, Enugu, Edo, Abuja, Imo and Kwara.
The concentration in Lagos may partly reflect the availability of testing services and the size of the city's population and economy.
It also means the geographical distribution of Smart DNA's clients should not be treated as a measure of demand across the country.
Other DNA testing providers now offer services in several Nigerian cities, indicating that access to relationship testing is no longer limited to Lagos.
Why the findings matter
A negative paternity result can have consequences far beyond the laboratory.
It can affect family relationships, child-support arrangements, inheritance disputes and questions about a child's identity.
Legal researchers in Nigeria have also identified gaps in the country's framework for dealing with paternity disputes.
A 2026 legal study described paternity misattribution as an issue involving privacy, family integrity, children's identity rights and the responsibilities of the state.
The study argued that Nigeria lacks a comprehensive parentage law and that existing legal protections and remedies remain inadequate.
That creates a difficult balance. DNA testing can provide strong biological evidence, but using that evidence in a family or legal dispute can raise separate questions about privacy, consent, custody and the welfare of the child.
A 2026 legal analysis also argued that informed consent and the best interests of the child should remain central to DNA testing, while noting the absence of a specific legal framework governing such tests in Nigeria.
Testing can answer one question, not every question
DNA testing can establish whether a biological relationship exists. It cannot, by itself, explain why a relationship broke down or determine what should happen to a family afterwards.
Smart DNA acknowledged this limitation in its report, saying DNA testing could provide highly accurate answers to biological questions but could not independently explain the social, cultural, economic or relationship circumstances that led people to seek testing.
That distinction is particularly important when test results circulate on social media, where a statistic from a private laboratory can quickly become a claim about an entire population.
Smart DNA has urged the public to rely on evidence rather than rumours or sensational claims when discussing paternity testing and family relationships.
For now, the latest figures show a relatively stable negative-result rate among people who sought testing at the company, rather than a national measure of paternity in Nigeria.
The next question for policymakers and researchers is whether Nigeria needs better population-level evidence and clearer rules around DNA testing, privacy and parental rights.
