Background. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is on the increase worldwide mainly from changing lifestyle. Presumably, the number of persons with diabetes associated skin disorders will be on the increase. Little is known about the myriad of cutaneous diseases that afflicts persons with diabetes mellitus in Nigeria, even worse is the situation in northern parts of the country. Most local studies were only on specific cutaneous disorders such as diabetic foot ulcer. This study set out to determine the prevalence, type and pattern of skin disorders among persons with diabetes mellitus attending diabetes outpatient clinic and in medical ward of the Usman Danfodio University Teaching Hospital Sokoto, North western Nigeria. Materials and methods This is an observational cross sectional study involving 360 consecutive persons with diabetes and 360 age and sex matched non diabetics who fulfilled the predetermined inclusion criteria. Detailed history was taken; physical examination was done and relevant investigations were carried out where necessary. The data was presented as means, median, and standard deviation. Result 356 type 2 diabetes and only 4 type 1persons (171 males and189 females) with diabetes were seen. The study subject’s ages ranged from 18 years to 70 years (median 50.0), while that of controls was 23 years to 70 years (median 48.0). The mean ages (SD) were 49.6 (10.9) years and 48.9 (10.5) years respectively. The difference in their mean ages was not statistically significant (ANOVA; F=0.78; P=0.38). 248(68.9) persons with diabetes had cutaneous lesions compared to 128 (35.6) controls. This was statistically very significant. (P<0.00005) Among cutaneous disorders commonly associated with diabetes, infections had the highest prevalence of 32% comprising 86(23.9%) fungal infection, 20(5.6) bacterial infection and 13(3.6) viral infection. Acanthosis nigicans was significantly commoner in DM than controls particularly in those who are overweight or obese. Subjects with poor glycaemic control had significantly higher prevalence of skin disorders than those with good control (P<0.00005).There was no relationship between age, sex, occupation, duration of diabetes and skin disorders. Conclusion The prevalence of skin disorders in this study was 68.9% in persons with DM compared to 35.6 in% controls which comparable with what is found in the literature. Infections accounted for 46.4% of all skin disorders in diabetics. There was strong relationship between glycaemic control and skin disorders while no relationship exist between sociodemographic factors and diabetes mellitus