Most of us held Ladi Kwali in our hands without knowing her name. Her face sits on the back of the Nigerian ₦20 note, usually appearing for a few seconds before the note is passed to a danfo driver, POS agent, akara seller or shopkeeper. For many Nigerians, she is simply “the woman on ₦20.”

But Ladi Kwali was much more than a face on a banknote. She was a Nigerian potter whose work connected an indigenous pottery tradition with modern ceramic techniques and eventually became part of international exhibitions and museum collections.

As physical cash gradually becomes less central to everyday Nigerian transactions, the ₦20 note itself is becoming easier to overlook. The Central Bank of Nigeria still lists the ₦20 as legal tender. However, under its Clean Note Policy, the CBN also removes banknotes that become unfit from circulation. It classifies notes that are heavily creased, badly soiled, limp or damaged as unfit and says they should not be recirculated.

While the ₦20 has not disappeared, it is fair to wonder how many young Nigerians still stop to ask who the woman on it was.

The clay that started it all 

Ladi Dosei Kwali was born around 1925 in Kwali, in the Gwari region of what is now Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

Pottery was already part of the community’s tradition, particularly among women. Kwali learnt the craft from her aunt as a child, using traditional hand-building techniques rather than a modern potter’s wheel. She worked with clay to create vessels that were not simply ordinary household objects. Her pots were carefully shaped and decorated, often carrying geometric and figurative designs; some featured animals and other forms inspired by her surroundings.

That traditional knowledge would eventually take her far beyond Kwali.

The Potter Who Drew International Attention 

In the early 1950s, British studio potter Michael Cardew became familiar with Kwali’s work. By 1954, she had joined the Abuja Pottery Training Centre, where she became the first woman member in the centre.

This introduced her to techniques associated with modern studio ceramics, including wheel throwing, glazing and kiln firing.

But Kwali did not simply abandon what she already knew, she continued making hand-built vessels using the coiling technique she had learnt traditionally, while incorporating some of the new techniques into her work. That combination became central to her artistic identity.

Her work showed that Nigerian pottery did not have to be separated into “traditional” and “modern” boxes. The two could meet in the hands of one artist.

Her art travelled beyond Nigeria 

Kwali’s work eventually travelled far beyond Nigeria. She exhibited and demonstrated pottery techniques in Britain, Europe and the United States, helping introduce international audiences to Nigerian ceramic traditions. Her work was shown in exhibitions and is now part of collections at institutions including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC.

One of her works in the Smithsonian collection is a glazed ceramic bowl made from red clay, with a geometric rosette design.

Also Read: The clay that built generations: The story of Nsukka pottery

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge also holds a Ladi Kwali water jar made in 1957. The museum notes that the piece carries animal decoration incised into the clay and that Kwali continued using the local hand-coiling method even after learning wheel throwing.

The techniques changed, the audience changed, and the places where her work was displayed changed, but the knowledge she learnt from home remained part of what made the work hers.

The recognition that followed her work 

Kwali received recognition both in Nigeria and internationally.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, received an honorary doctorate from Ahmadu Bello University and later received the Nigerian National Order of Merit and the Officer of the Order of the Niger.

She died in Minna on 12 August 1984, aged 59, but her name did not disappear with her.

The Abuja Pottery Training Centre was eventually renamed the Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre in her honour, while her work continued to be preserved and exhibited.

The ₦20 note carries more than money 

The ₦20 note itself has been part of Nigerian currency history since 1977. According to the CBN, it was introduced that year and reissued in 1984 in a new colour. The current polymer version was redesigned and released on 28 February 2007. On the back is Ladi Kwali.

The CBN describes pottery works by Kwali as one of the cultural elements represented on Nigerian currency. That means a small piece of Nigerian art history has been travelling through the country’s markets, buses, shops, wallets and cash registers for decades.

A potter from Kwali became part of everyday Nigerian life in a way she could never have experienced while alive.

Today, however, you might receive a ₦20 note and barely notice it. You might not even receive one at all.

Nigeria is increasingly using transfers, cards, POS payments and other electronic channels, while worn-out physical notes are regularly removed from circulation. The CBN’s own guidance encourages Nigerians to handle banknotes properly and use electronic payment channels where appropriate.

But if the ₦20 eventually becomes something we see less often, Ladi Kwali’s story should not disappear with it, because before her face was printed on a note, she was already turning clay into something that could travel across borders.

And perhaps the next time a ₦20 note lands in your hand, it is worth looking at the back before spending it. The woman there had a name, Ladi Kwali. And she helped show the world what Nigerian clay could become.

Meiza Nigeria