The agency confirmed the new infections in its update for October 12, 2020.
The new figure is the highest daily count recorded so far in the month of October.
The last time the daily record of new cases exceeded 165 was on September 30, when 201 new infections were confirmed.
A total of 208 people were discharged on Monday, representing a significant increase in the number of daily recoveries over the past 24 hours.
On Sunday, Nigeria hit a major low in its daily recoveries with 24 people discharged in a single count — the lowest in over five months.
Also, Monday marked 48 hours since a new fatality as a result of COVID-19 complications was recorded, leaving the current death toll at 1,115.
Out of 60,430 confirmed infections now confirmed across the country, 51,943 persons have recovered.
Meanwhile, across Africa, the number of confirmed cases has now surpassed 1.5 million, but out of that figure, more than 1.3 million people have recovered, while fatalities are less than 40,000.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed the figures in its update for Monday.
According to the organisation’s breakdown, South Africa topped the list of African countries with 692,471 infections, followed by Morocco with 152,404, and Egypt with 104,516.
For COVID-19 deaths across Africa, the three countries with the highest number of confirmed cases also have the most fatalities – in South Africa, 17,780 people have died, 6,052 in Egypt, and 2,605 in Morocco.
Over 1.5 million confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent – with more than 1.3 million recoveries & 38,000 deaths cumulatively.