Nigeria’s Growth Is Unsustainable. Here’s Why.

Lagos is currently the largest city in Nigeria, and by the end of this century, it could be the largest in the world which would be home to 80 million people. Right now, all eyes are on Lagos because if they manage to achieve this megacity status it could be the start of a new era of urbanization in Africa.

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Faultline is produced by:

Executive Producer/Story Editor/Host: Andy Burgess
Story/Research: Anjali Sharma
Production Assistant: Mack Mooney
Production Manager: Anjali Sharma
Editors: Sonali Bisht, Ronit Soin & Andy Burgess
Motion Graphics: Ronit Soin & Andy Burgess
Consultant Astrid R.N. Haas

Special thanks to Amusan Kaseem Ayomon

Archive Maps from David Rumsey

Sources 🔗

Time Stamps:

0:00 - Lagos. City to Megacity.
1:29 - Why are African cities growing so fast?
3:35 - Lagos Africa's Silicon Valley.
4:03 - Lagos can't handle it's growing population.
5:17 - What Nigerians think about life in Lagos.
6:03 - Lagos State's 30-Year Plan to make Lagos a 'model megacity.'
7:38 - The plan needs $3 Trillion. Enter China.
9:21 - But Nigeria is in a lot of debt...
9:55 - Nigeria needs to build on it's own strengths.

[Faultlinevideos]

Hey everyone thank you for watching, let us know which city we should look at next!

[Tpoleful]

I'm from Dhaka, Bangladesh and these problems are present here too. In fact, the situation in Dhaka may be worse with inefficient transport system, overpopulation and lack of infrastructure for the poor. Even the middle class lives in really congested gullies. The country has become visibly richer in the past ten years (GDP tripled) but sound, air and water pollution has gotten much worse.

[knightandlord]

I'm Lagosian and I've always said that the biggest thing Lagos lacks is competition. States around Lagos: Ogun, Oyo etc aren't even acting like they see the opportunities that abound from Lagos being complacent. The state used to be the former capital of the federation, yet, it can't get basic things right. When other states begin to sit up and Lagos begins to lose a ton of tax revenue beause people would rather live off the city, maybe they'll sit up. For now, a low-hanging fruit is transportation. It'll solve a lot.

[gregoryferraro]

This reminds me of the rapid and massive growth of cities like London, Paris, and New York during the industrial revolution. A different era, to be sure, but it also resulted in massive slums with poor infrastructure and exploitation of poverty. Today, those slim neighbourhoods have been renovated into some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Or completely demolished and cut through with boulevards in Paris's case.

[Chorutowo]

Im half Indonesian, and alot of the problems with Lagos is shared with Jakarta, especially with the water. Even though the water pollution has decreased alot, most rivers are still filthy. Like my moms childhood house was on the Ciliwung river, and its extremely polluted. Even if most trash has been filtered out, its still very unsafe to drink.

[garyburke]

Nigeria went from 56 million in 1970 to 211 million in 2020. This is unsustainable population growth.

[Isiejeme]

I only pity those still trooping to an already conjested city when there are many other cities and towns with equally good opportunities to grow in Nigeria. Nigeria isn't only about Lagos, the earlier some people realize this the better their lives will be. Nice outlook on the city of Lagos.

[bayokoebi]

Am a Lagosian, Lagos is the smallest state in Nigeria but the highest population in Nigeria

[oluwabiyioluwatobi]

I lived in Lagos before pursuing higher education, and I hated the transport system. It affected the rich and poor, young and old. I used to wake up as early as 4:30am to beat the traffic and get to work by 8am. A journey that takes about 45 minutes can take up to 2.5 hours.

[exosproudmamabear]

Megacities are a problem if you do not have enough jobs in other cities or good enough living standards in other cities. The thing is the mosre you try to solve the problems in a city the more you cause problems because solving city's problems means more people coming and causing infrastructure to collapse more. Best way to solve this is building infrastructure so you can widen the scope of companies so other neighboring cities can develop on their own too. Also you can try to establish government subsidied companies in other cities so they could develop too. You dont really need to do many things for a city to develop just make a city planning, infrastructure and have jobs the city develops on its own.

[singaporenoodles]

Omg finally a video about Nigeria huge population growth I'm a demographics nerd and I have been like looking at Nigeria's population at 2050 and 2100 and it's crazy bro 🤯

[HessionDrasha]

It will be cool if lagos and sao paolo, become an equivalent transatlantic business connection, to london to new york. Might make it affordable to fly to south america from europe :) The same from mombasa to mumbai.

[j.obrien]

One important point is that Nigeria's birthrate is very high even by African standards. Many African nations like Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal, and Ivory Coast have much lower fertility rates.

[desertbloomke]

This video does well expounding on the problems facing Nigeria, and in the process problems facing most of the developing Africa countries . The governments wants to make African countries better and more competitive and appealing globally but they keep making the same mistakes...the development projects are ALWAYS geared towards the richer population, and they forget that like 98% of the citizens are middle class and lower, low class being the majority!☹️

I guess it's easier to create more development where there's money...but this is like sweeping trash under a rug instead of taking the time to actually clean it up. The low class and middle class need to be involved in the changes happening because they alone understand what kind of problems they face in their communities. I've seen this in my own country, and now Nigeria and Egypt.

I really hope our leaders develop bigger hearts for all their people, not just where they see money. Priorities.
Kenyan here🇰🇪

[embeddedprojects]

Mumbai slum are reducing because of re-development plan and because of better access to satellite cities Navi Mumbai and Thane, once dedicated metro lines get completed which should be within 2-3 years and coastal highway things will greatly improve

[xiondFirst]

I visited Kathmandu few days ago. They aren't growing at the rate of India or Bangladesh. But it's a developing country and waste management is a huge problem from what I've seen. And the rich are getting richer while the poorer people are pushed to villages with lack of water and basic needs.

[orboakin]

As a Nigerian, it's always so refreshing to see objective coverage. Respect

[geopolitics]

Mumbai Slums Dharavi have $1 Billion Dollar Economy . And Govt has given Tender to Adani Groups to redevelop the area and Infrastructure . So in coming years, You'll see lots of Development . Indian Government is currently building more and more Greenfield and brownfield cities . I want you to make a video on Dholera smart City . Navi Mumbai is a Planned City ( You can call it Sister City of Mumbai )

[ifecojahs]

The reason why Lagos is so conjested is the overcentralisation.The only other airport that is used to go in and out of nigeria is in Lagos, the only seaport in nigeria is in lagos, despite the fact that there are other seaports in other parts of the country, but the Federal government insists that it is only Lagos that people must use, only because they want to punnish iGbo people for wanting to opt out of the country

[southside]

I moved from Lagos to dc, and I laugh every time my friends or the Uber driver complain of traffic, Lagos traffic happens all the time everywhere