The draw for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers group stages was held in the studios of SuperSport in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday evening.

Forty eight countries that qualified for the second round of qualifiers were seeded into four pots based on the Fifa ranking released on March 31, 2022, meaning the Super Eagles, Africa's third best ranked team, were among the teams in pot one.

Nigeria have been drawn against Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and either São Tomé and Príncipe or Mauritius in Group A of the qualifiers.

The Super Eagles are regulars in the Africa Cup of Nations, reaching the semifinals in fifteen out of their nineteen appearances, winning on three occasions 1980, 1994 and 2013.

In the latest world rankings, Sierra Leone occupy the 108th position, Guinea-Bissau are 115th, Mauritius 179th and São Tomé and Príncipe 183rd.

Only the top two teams from each group will qualify for the 2023 AFCON which takes place in Ivory Coast
23 June – 23 July, 2023.

Group A : Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe/Mauritius

Group B : Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Togo, Eswatini

Group C : Cameroon, Kenya, Namibia, Burundi

Group D : Egypt, Guinea, Malawi, Ethiopia

Group E : Ghana, Madagascar, Angola, Central African Republic

Group F : Algeria, Uganda, Niger, Tanzania

Group G : Mali, Congo, Gambia, South Sudan

Group H : Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Comoros, Lesotho

Group I : DR Congo, Gabon, Mauritania, Sudan

Group J : Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Botswana

Group K : Morocco, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia

Group L : Senegal, Benin, Mozambique, Rwanda

Ifeanyi Emmanuel