Lagos is currently the largest city in Nigeria and by the end of the century it could be the largest in the world what was once a small coastal town has today exploded into a mega city with a population of 15 million which get this is set to double by 2050. and usually when cities turn into mega cities there's better infrastructure and economic opportunities for the people but in developing countries it can also end up making the rich richer and the poor even worse off we can also see this in Mumbai for example home to over 21 million people it's considered the financial capital of India with tall skyscrapers long highways and thriving Industries but it's also the city that houses one of the biggest slums in the world where people have little access to basic facilities like water and sanitation today two-thirds of the population in Lagos live below the poverty line the city also struggles with a high crime rate and inefficient public transport system and an impact on natural resources due to climate change to tackle this though the government of Lagos has come up with this a 30-year plan to make Lagos Africa's model Mega City and transform it into something that they call an Ultra Modern economic destination right now all eyes are on Lagos because if they manage to achieve this they could be the start of a new era of urbanization in Africa and today we're going to find out what this city could look like so did you know Africa's Urban population is growing faster than any other continent in the world and what helped me learn more about this is blinkists who are also the sponsor of this video blinkist helps you discover and understand powerful ideas from books and podcasts and they have over 5000 titles from 27 categories broken down into bite-sized content in 15 minutes I'm able to gain valuable insights into different topics that I wouldn't have been able to gather otherwise something else you probably didn't know about me is that I'm dyslexic I find it extremely hard to do a lot of reading and writing unless I'm very excited about a topic and the problem is I really enjoy books but reading them physically exhausts me my brain is just wired gift but the link is an amazing Pathway to exploring that Curiosity take this story I was able to consume all these books on Africa Nigeria urban planning China's role in Africa we'll get to that in a bit all about draining my energy and instead getting me excited to learn more at full rhyme we are using blinkist as an important tool in our research because of this new feature that allows every premium player to be shared with two different accounts at no additional cost so I can recommend China's second continent to Anjali who is working on this video too and then we're both on the same page by clicking the link in our description you will be supporting us to make more of these videos and you'll also be able to get 30 off blinkist premium along with getting two memberships for the price of one so share it with another friend or family man and you can start a seven day free trial today by clicking the link in our description in fact for this story I wanted to know what's causing this growth in African City and I found a range of books on blinkist to help me understand this turns out one of the biggest reasons behind this is a youth bulge where more people between 15 and 29 years of age move from rural areas to cities seeking new job opportunities bigger markets for business and better living conditions in fact Africa is the youngest continent in in the world with just a median age of 19. and honestly this could be a great shift for the people because cities hold a lot of economic power 10 of Nigeria's total GDP of more than 400 billion dollars is generated in Lagos alone it's also considered Africa's startup capital and is gradually becoming the tech Hub of the country with companies like Google and Microsoft headquartered in the city over the years the city has developed two seaports local and international airports and several industrial areas resulting in Lagos becoming the center of Nigeria's social and economic activity but the growth hasn't really been able to keep up with the rise of lagos's population which is exactly when an urban divide starts to build in mega cities today Lagos houses more than seven percent of Nigeria's population but more than two-thirds of the people in Lagos State live in informal housing including several in slum areas most facilities in these areas are either basic services like water and sewage and are often controlled by private companies that overcharge because of which people can barely afford it more than half the population here live in something called face me I face you housing which has so little space that people share the same room while sleeping back to back or face to face public transport is hardly functioning and mainly consists of these minivans and motorcycle taxis in fact on average Lagos residents spend more than 1500 hours in traffic annually whilst people in La for example which is a city known for awful congestion and traffic jam spend just 128. the city of Lagos also has the smallest land mass in Nigeria making it very difficult to accommodate for a growing population and their need for infrastructure in fact poor drainage systems are partly responsible for recurring floods like these face a lot of stress because of the world I normally take boats every day in order to get to office on time the truth of matter is that the government is trying but it's not at the stage we want Lagos State to be people living in slums area on the lower class area they don't normally dispose their waste really because they cannot afford it so they prefer putting it inside the gutter so that the water will carry you during the rainfall carrying into the Lagoon thereby pollution the Lagoon the water that's supposed to be enjoying and actually you have to know from you in the comments whether you can relate to any of these problems and if not what does your life look like in your city or town what kind of issues are you having to deal with after I heard the people of Lagos talk about their problems ironically I came across this report which told me that Lagos is Nigeria's wealthiest city holding 97 billion dollars of total private wealth which doesn't sound like the same city that these people were talking about at this point I had to find out why isn't more money being spent on the city and does the government even have any plans to improve it we're focusing on 20 strategic areas that will drive these very deep ambition in October of 2022 executive governor of Lagos State announced a 30-year plan to make Lagos Africa's model Mega City the Lagos State development plan of 2052 focuses on four objectives economy infrastructure governance and building a human-centric city with over 400 initiatives each task is assigned to a specific Ministry and classified into four categories starting with quick wins through long-term developments and the big focus of this plan is to create high value jobs over the next 30 Years and expand into sectors like trade and Manufacturing building more Tech ecosystems and even contributing to the growing film industry in Nigeria Nollywood at first glance the plan looks great but implementing it would require strong leadership and lots of money and there seems to be a lack of funds not just in Lagos but in Nigeria as a whole to make up for its Gap in infrastructure Nigeria needs an estimated three trillion dollars by 2050. so where are they going to get that one of the ways in which in securing These funds is by borrowing them primarily from China Niger is determined to attract foreign direct Investments China has been significantly investing in the country and has almost become an alternative to financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank as of today it's Nigeria's largest bilateral lender and is funding large projects including Railways hydroelectric power plants and the rehabilitation of Nigeria's main four airports one of which is in Lagos and here's something that you're going to find interesting the Nigeria China trade in products increased from more than one billion dollars in 2003 to nearly 14 billion dollars in 2019 and in the same period Nigeria's trade with the US declined from a 11.5 billion to 7.5 billion in fact in 2018 the White House criticized the increasing influence of China in Africa and announced a new program called Prosper Africa to increase the trade and investment between the US and African countries according to his website the program has helped close to a thousand deals adding up to 65 billion dollars in exports and Investments and the work is still ongoing but the fact that this project was launched after China's increased investments in African markets makes me question the real purpose of Prosper Africa is it meant to grow African countries or to prevent China from growing too much in the region the whole debate around whether China is on its way to financially colonizing Africa as some have been putting it is ongoing and a lot more complex to explain than in this one video but Nigeria's dependency on borrowing to fund its infrastructure is quite clear the country's total public debt crossed 100 billion in 2022 and what's truly shocking is that despite these numbers Nigeria spends about 75 percent of its annual budget on civil servant salaries and other costs in fact the Lagos state has higher tax revenue than any other in Nigeria but most of this revenue is not even collected so this is the plan on paper but when you look on the ground about what's actually happening in the city things don't look super good the growth of lagos's population is Undisputed but the new infrastructure and opportunities it will bring cannot be sustained if the people living below the poverty line are not included in this development plan does that mean that lagos's version of being the Ultra Modern economic destination is not possible not at all what it needs is to expand its focus from just the rich to include all the different social groups that live within the city today for example when planning new residential projects the city can't just be thinking about skyscrapers and luxury living solutions have to be built for low and mixed income groups and sometimes this will take more effort because it doesn't just include constructing a building for them to live in it includes creating equal educational resources and employment opportunities which can then help them afford a better standard of living instead of modeling systems from developed countries that urbanize in a very different economic and environmental period the city needs to identify its own strengths and build on them and right now one of the biggest strengths lies in its population and all the potential that its people hold yeah and thanks again to blinkist for sponsoring this video check out the link in our 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