Potiskum is a Local Government Area in Yobe State, Nigeria on the A3 highway at 11°43′N 11°04′E / 11.717°N 11.067°ECoordinates: 11°43′N 11°04′E / 11.717°N 11.067°E.
It has an area of 559 square kilometres (216 sq mi) and a population of 205,876 at the 2006 census. The postal code of the area is 631.
Potiskum is the main settlement for the Ngizim people. The current Emir of Potiskum HRH Mai Umar Ibn Wuriwa Bauya was awarded a national honour of officer of the order of the Niger (OON) by the former president and commander in-chief of the arm forces federal republic of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR in 2004. The international award in Africa awarded his royal highness its outstanding leadership gold award for year the year 2008. The institute of corporate executive of Nigeria conferred on his royal highness the achiever par excellence in exemplary and accountable leadership, on 11 June 2009.
Potiskum has been a thriving trade hegemony in Yobe State because of its strategic position as a centre of commerce, learning, spiritual and cultural revival. Till date, the town is second to none in Yobe State when it comes to business activities because people from neighbouring Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi and Gombe States, as well as numerous others from Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Central African Republic have stakes in the ‘biggest cattle market in sub- Saharan African,’ which is also situated in Potiskum