The experiment was carried out to assess the genetic diversity existing among 102 germplasm accessions of niger during kharif  2015 for ten yield and yield contributing characters by using Mahalanobis D2 statistic. The analysis of variance revealed significant difference among the genotypes for most of the characters. Based on genetic distance (D2 value), 102 genotypes were grouped into twelve clusters indicating wider genetic diversity in the germplasm collections of niger. Of the twelve clusters formed, cluster III was the largest with 39 genotypes followed by cluster I with 36 genotypes. The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster II and XII (49.23) which was followed by cluster distance between cluster II and IV (46.20), while lowest divergence was noticed between cluster V and VIII (10.56). Among the ten characters studied,  Plant height (cm) contributed highest towards genetic divergence (36.45%) followed by number of capitula per plant (30.99%), seed yield per plant (11.23%), number of seeds per capitulum (9.82%), number of primary branches per plant (5.37), days to maturity (2.2%) and days to 50% flowering (1.86%). Cluster IV exhibited highest means for number of capitula, test weight and seed yield per plant. Cluster X exhibited lowest means for days to 50 per cent flowering, days to maturity, number of primary branches per plant and number of seeds per capitulum. Cluster XII exhibited highest means for plant height. Cluster XI exhibited highest means for number of secondary branches per plant and oil content. The genotypes from cluster II and XII followed by cluster II and IV which have highest inter cluster distance are suggested as parents for hybridization programme to achieve novel recombinants.