Production of the essential amino acid, L-lysine, by a soil isolate identified as Bacillus laterosporus was assessed in batch fermentation. Carbon sources including cassava, yam, millet, corn, plantain, sweet potato and sorghum starches, and nitrogen sources including ammonium sulphate, blood meal, defatted and non-defatted cowpea, bambara groundnut, groundnut, cotton seed and soyabean meals were used. In a shake flask fermentation using the various carbon sources, and ammonium sulphate as the nitrogen source, millet gave the highest yield (3.0 g/l) of lysine. The effect of various nitrogen sources at 1.0% (w/v) concentration on lysine production using millet as the carbon source showed that soyabean produced the highest lysine yield (5.67 g/l). The lysine yields were higher for the defatted nitrogen sources than for the non-defatted ones or ammonium sulphate.