Lagos is a city that grows faster than its infrastructure can handle, adding roughly 3,000 new residents every single day. This relentless expansion has turned the former capital of Nigeria into a megacity of between 17 and 21 million people, making it the most populous urban area on the African continent. The city emerged in the 15th century as a home to the Awori people, an Ijebu subgroup of the Yoruba, who settled on a farmstead known as Ereko, which translates to Eko in the local language. Before the 15th century, these early settlers lived along the coastal line, working and living in an area that is now contained within the present-day Local Government Areas of Lagos Island, Eti-Osa, Amuwo-Odofin, and Apapa. The land is separated by creeks and fringed by the southwest mouth of the Lagos Lagoon, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by barrier islands and long sand spits such as Bar Beach. As the city expanded rapidly to the west of the lagoon, it engulfed areas in the present-day Lagos Mainland, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, and Surulere, creating a unique division between the original city on the Island and the sprawling Mainland that followed. This rapid urbanization has led to a classification of Lagos into two main areas, yet the true definition of the city has evolved into a conurbation known as Metropolitan Lagos, which encompasses 16 Local Government Areas and accommodates approximately 85% of the state's total population. The population of Metropolitan Lagos is a subject of intense debate, with the 2006 federal census data suggesting a figure of about 9 million, while the Lagos State Government claims the number is closer to 16 million, and independent estimates for 2022 place the figure at roughly 28 million. Lagos may have already overtaken Kinshasa as Africa's most populous city, and it is part of an emerging transnational megalopolis on the coast of West Africa known as the Abidjan, Lagos Corridor, which includes areas in five sovereign states.
The Economic Engine Of Africa
Lagos generates around 30 to 35% of Nigeria's entire GDP, serving as the financial and commercial heart of the nation. The city is home to the four largest banks in West and Central Africa, with Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, and First Bank each boasting capital of more than US$2 billion. These financial institutions, along with the insurance industry which has an annual turnover of around US$1 billion, are predominantly headquartered on Victoria Island and Lagos Island. The Port of Lagos, formally known as the Lagos-Elbert Mathews Memorial Port, is Nigeria's leading port and one of the largest and busiest in Africa, handling more than half of the country's maritime trade. It acts as a transhipment point for landlocked countries such as Chad and Niger, with around 1,000 ships and 5,700,000 tonnes of cargo calling at the port complex annually. The city is also the major information communications and telecommunications hub of West Africa, hosting more tech centers than any other city on the continent. Five out of seven African tech unicorns operate out of Lagos, including Flutterwave, Opay, Interswitch, Jumia, and Andela, leading Bloomberg to label the city as Africa's Silicon Valley. In December 2023, the oil refinery in Lekki went into operation, producing 650,000 barrels of oil per day with plans to expand capacity to 14 million barrels per day. A new fertiliser production plant has been producing 3 million tonnes of fertiliser a year since 2022, stepping into a gap in the market left by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Lekki Free Trade Zone covers a total area of about 155 square kilometres and is being developed into a multifunctional district integrating industry, trade, commerce, real estate, warehousing, logistics, tourism, and entertainment. The city is also developing a 24-hour economy, and its globalisation is rated beta minus by the GaWC, equivalent to Manchester or Edinburgh in the UK.