Background Cervical cancer, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2022), is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, with an estimated 604 000 new cases globally. About 90% of the estimated 342,000 cervical cancer deaths in 2020 occur in low- and middle-income countries. It is considered a disease of public health importance because it is easily preventable and mostly affects women aged between 15 and 44, a group of women who contribute greatly to society and the economy. However, most women living in low and – middle-income countries, Nigeria included, have not been properly screened according to WHO specific guidelines. Therefore, this study aims to assess the barriers limiting women's access to cervical cancer screening services in Nigeria.

Methods The study employs a systematic review of the literature using PRISMA guidelines to search for papers in seven databases - Web of Science, Medline, Wiley, Embase, Pubmed, CINAHL, and SAGE. Database search covered a period of 10 years; 2012 to 2022. Articles were selected if they reported cervical cancer screening in Nigeria, were focused on women 15-65 years and reported barriers to cervical cancer screening. Selected articles were subject to quality review using SPIDER and a grading scale based on the Risk of Bias Instrument for systematic review was used to assess the risk of bias in individual research. Thematic analysis was used to summarise the outcomes descriptively.

Results This review identified five categories of barriers limiting women's access to cervical cancer screening in Nigeria: education barriers, hospital-related barriers, economic barriers, geographical barriers, and psychosocial barriers. The most significant barriers cutting across all papers reviewed were poor knowledge of the disease, low awareness about screening services, cost of screening, lack of recommendation by a healthcare provider, cost of travel and distance to screening facilities, spousal support and approval, as well as cultural and religious constraints.

Conclusion Women face diverse barriers that influence their uptake of cervical cancer screening. These barriers need to be tackled in order to increase the uptake of cervical cancer screening and subsequently reduce the burden of cervical cancer in Nigeria.