Nigerian, Ghanaian and Brazilian Driving Licences in the UK: No Exchange, the 12-Month Limit and the Brazilian CNH

A Nigerian driver's licence carries its category in colour. According to the EU's PRADO register of identity documents, its stripe is blue for private drivers, red for commercial, yellow for diplomatic, green for motorcycles, black for senior citizens and orange for drivers aged 18 to 25.

None of that changes what the DVLA does with it. Nigeria, like Ghana and Brazil, has no licence exchange agreement with Great Britain, so a driver with twenty years' experience in Lagos, Accra or São Paulo takes the same tests as a 17-year-old in Swindon.

This guide covers the 12-month limit, the test route, what each licence looks like, when a translation helps, and Northern Ireland. The general rules are in driving licence translation for the DVLA, and South Asian licences in Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi licences.

Can I exchange a Nigerian, Ghanaian or Brazilian licence in the UK?

No. GOV.UK's exchange tool names 23 designated countries and territories, and none of the three is on the list. For every other licence it says: "You cannot exchange your licence but you can drive for up to 12 months on your non-GB licence. After 12 months you'll need to take a theory test and a practical test."

How long can I drive on my licence?

GOV.UK gives a visitor 12 months "from when you last entered Great Britain" and a new resident 12 months "from when you became resident". You are normally resident if you live in Great Britain for 185 days in each calendar year. The licence must be full and valid throughout; an expired card, or a learner permit, does not count.

GOV.UK's answer for foreign students with licences from these countries skips the 12 months and points straight to a provisional licence and both tests, so students should plan on that route.

What happens after the 12 months?

You drive as a learner until you pass:

• Provisional licence: £34 online or £43 by post, once you have permission to live in Great Britain for at least 185 days.
• Learner rules: regulation 16 of the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1999 requires a qualified supervisor, L plates and no trailer. The supervisor must be over 21 and have held a full UK, EU, Swiss, Norwegian, Icelandic or Liechtenstein licence for 3 years, so a friend who drives on a Nigerian licence does not qualify.
• Theory test: £23, in English, Welsh or British Sign Language only.
• Practical test: £62 on weekdays, £75 on evenings, weekends and bank holidays, once you have lived in Great Britain for at least 185 days.

Passing starts the two-year new driver period, because section 1 of the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 counts only tests passed in the UK, the EEA, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands or Gibraltar. Six penalty points in those two years revoke your licence.

Do Nigerian and Ghanaian licences need translating?

Not if everything on them is in English. A Nigerian card is printed in English: PRADO records "FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA" and "NATIONAL DRIVERS LICENCE" on its face. Ghana's DVLA runs its licensing services in English, but check your own card. If every word, stamp and sticker on it is English, no insurer, hire company or employer in the UK needs it translated, and paying for a "certified translation" adds nothing.

What helps instead is knowing your licence:

• Nigerian classes. The FRSC uses classes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and J; class B is "Motor Vehicle Private" and class E "Motor Vehicle Commercial". One card can carry up to three classes, for 3 or 5 years.
• Nigeria's digital licence. The FRSC now offers an eNDL app, but Enterprise says "digital licences are not accepted" at its UK desks. Bring the card.
• Ghana's stages. DVLA Ghana issues a learner's permit, then a temporary licence and P-plate, then the actual licence; renewals add a sticker to the licence, and its International Driving Permit lasts one year.

Does a Brazilian CNH need a certified translation?

Not for the DVLA, which has nothing to exchange. For insurers, hire desks and employers it often helps, because the CNH (Carteira Nacional de Habilitação) is a Portuguese document whose key details are coded.

CONTRAN Resolution 886 of 2021 set the current model, issued since 1 June 2022. As first published, it gave the heading as "CARTEIRA NACIONAL DE HABILITAÇÃO / DRIVING LICENSE / PERMISO DE CONDUCCIÓN", and Brazil's public news agency reported that the card's printed information appears in English and Spanish as well as Portuguese. Restrictions and paid-driving status sit in a coded observations field, and a QR code lets the document be validated. Replacement is not compulsory, so Portuguese-only CNHs issued before June 2022 stay in use until renewal.

Insurers set their own terms. Aviva wants no-claims proof that is "in English" or translated "by an authorised/sworn translator with the appropriate seal/signature of authenticity"; the UK has no sworn translators (see who can certify a translation), so ask what your insurer accepts before ordering.

Four features matter in the UK:

1. Paper or digital. The physical CNH is a folding document, specified in the resolution as first published at 85 by 120 mm open and printed "PROIBIDO PLASTIFICAR" (do not laminate). It can also be issued as the electronic CNH-e. UK hire desks such as Enterprise want the physical document.
2. P or D. A one-year probationary licence (Permissão para Dirigir) carries a "P" icon; a definitive CNH carries a "D".
3. Validity. Field 14, validade, is defined as the expiry date of the holder's medical fitness examination, so the translation labels it exactly rather than as a generic expiry date.
4. The international permit. Brazil's Permissão Internacional para Dirigir (PID) is valid in countries party to the 1968 Vienna Convention, which the UK ratified in 2018, but only when shown with a valid CNH. Its pages repeat your details in eight languages, English among them; Rio Grande do Sul's DETRAN, for example, takes applications online and issues it for up to 3 years or until the CNH expires.

What should a CNH translation show?

All 21 numbered elements of the official model, in order. The ones insurers read most:

• Name (field 4), civil or social name, matched to the passport. HM Passport Office notes that Brazilian names usually combine forenames with the mother's and then the father's surname, sometimes followed by Filho, Junior or Neto.
• Identity document, CPF number, date and place of birth, parents (filiação) and nationality (fields 5 to 9).
• Categories (field 12) and ACC (field 11), as printed. Matching them to GB categories is the insurer's job, not the translator's.
• Register number (13), validity (14) and first licence date (15), which shows how long you have been driving.
• Observations (16), each code with its official meaning.
• Place and date of issue, validation code, RENACH form number and the machine-readable zone (fields 17 to 21).

For birth, marriage and other Brazilian records, see Portuguese and Brazilian documents.

How is Northern Ireland different?

The DVA, not the DVLA, handles licences there. A new resident can drive on a valid foreign licence for 12 months and, until then, nidirect says, is "not under normal provisional licence conditions". To keep driving without a break you "must get a provisional NI licence and pass a driving test(s) before the 12 month period elapses." A first provisional licence costs £62.50, and new drivers display R plates for a year.

Common mistakes

• Translating an English-language Nigerian or Ghanaian licence for an office that never asked.
• Driving after month 12 as if the foreign licence still counted.
• Presenting only a digital licence at a hire desk.
• Leaving the CNH observation codes unexplained, so a restriction or paid-driving code is missed.
• Assuming a no-claims history transfers without checking the insurer's country list.
• A name on the translation that differs from the passport with no note.

Checklist: Nigerian, Ghanaian or Brazilian licence in the UK

Questions people ask