The Bali of Nigeria

The Bali of Nigeria, numbering approximately 5,400 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Niger-Congo-speaking community of Nigeria's Adamawa State, settled along the Jalingo road roughly 30 kilometers from Numan, whose language is known variously as Bali, Bibaali, or Maya among neighboring peoples of the middle Benue river region. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Bali (Nigeria) is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Bali

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Nigeria
People Cluster: Adamawa-Ubangi
Primary Language(s): Bali (Nigeria) (bcn)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 5,400
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG013660
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Bali of Nigeria

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

60%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Bali (Nigeria)
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Bali (Nigeria) Speakers

Media Resources in Bali (Nigeria):

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Bali (Nigeria):

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Bali (Nigeria) bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Bali are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Bali:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Bali of Nigeria

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
readRomans 3:23

Pray that those who live in fear, guilt and discontentment because of sin will see their need for change, hear, and receive the good news of freedom from sin through Christ.

...I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
readPsalm 13:5

Ask God to bring many to trust in His unfailing love and cause their hearts to rejoice in His salvation.

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
readIsaiah 49:13

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ and suffer for their faith, they will sing for joy and be glad in their hearts because the Lord has compassion on them.

He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
readJohn 1:7

Pray that God will raise up witnesses to testify about Jesus so that all might believe, knowing that He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

Maya (Bali) Across Countries (ROP3 - 100847) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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