Lagos’s urban development could exacerbate inequality

Significance

Africa’s largest city is beset by socio-economic inequality, the uneven distribution of services and an often ineffective or corrupt system of governance. Worsening climate change effects are likely to make these problems more intractable, creating additional sources of civil conflict. Meanwhile, a housing development project, Eko Atlantic City, is being billed as an environmentally conscious solution to Lagos’s urban housing problems.

Impacts

• Government plans to redevelop Lagos into a world-class city will produce new conflicts over rights to housing and land.
• While a new urban rail system in Lagos could ease traffic congestion, poorer areas may be bypassed.
• Climate change adaptation is likely to accelerate the privatisation of infrastructure and construction of elite urban enclaves.
• African urban residents of slums or under-serviced areas will rely on individual or neighborhood-level solutions to climate change.