According to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), which is the international taxonomic soil classification system, Nile Basin has 17 dominant soil groups.
The characteristics of the soil groups are as tabulated in Annex A
The dominant soil group in the basin is vertisols (18.5%of the total basin area), followed by yermosols (16.7%).
| Dominant Soil | Area (km2) | Percentage of Area |
| Acrisols | 44,985 | 1.4 |
| Andosols | 7,267 | 0.2 |
| Arenosols | 284,955 | 9.0 |
| Cambisols | 224,354 | 7.1 |
| Ferralsols | 314,978 | 9.9 |
| Fluvisols | 115,040 | 3.6 |
| Gleysols | 55,855 | 1.8 |
| Lithosols | 235,957 | 7.4 |
| Luvisols | 73,978 | 2.3 |
| Nitosols | 159,521 | 5.0 |
| Planosols | 860 | 0.0 |
| Podzoluvisols | 3,930 | 0.1 |
| Regosols | 210,591 | 6.6 |
| Solonchaks | 5,330 | 0.2 |
| Vertisols | 587,655 | 18.5 |
| Water bodies | 91,303 | 2.9 |
| Xerosols | 228,120 | 7.2 |
| Yermosols | 530,263 | 16.7 |
