Social challenges:
● Rapid growth has lead to numerous problems in Lagos
○ Planners have been unable to keep up with the rapidly expanding population
○ Over 60% of the population live in slums (eg/ Makoko)
■ Houses in Makoko are flimsy , wooden huts, built on stilts
■ Only 1 primary school → many families cannot afford to send their children to school
● Leads to a drop in literacy rates
■ Communal toilets → shared by 15 households and most waste goes straight to the lagoon
● Leads to health problems (eg/ cholera)
○ Water can only be bought 3km away and the only electricity source is from illegal connections that
often cut out
○ Very high levels of crime in Makoko → the slum is self-policed by gangs called “Area Boys”
Economical challenges:
● Not enough formal jobs for all the migrants
○ 40% of workforce work in informal
○ People do not pay tax
■ Causes those who are paying tax to have to pay more → inequality
● A lot of the rushed/low-pay jobs may be dangerous/hazard to health
● People work for long hours and receive very little pay
○ People have to make money in any possible way that they can
■ eg/ by scavenging in the Olusosun rubbish dump for items to sell and make profit from
→ Employment structures:
● Primary : the extraction of raw materials
○ eg/ farming, mining, fishing
● Secondary: the manufacturing of raw materials
○ eg/ manufacturing of clothes, cars
● Tertiary: providing a service
○ eg/ teacher, doctor, bus driver, shopkeeper
● Quaternary: knowledge-based , with services such as information technology, research and development
→ Nigeria
● Primary jobs = 55%
● Secondary jobs = 14%
● Tertiary jobs = 31%
→ Lagos
● Primary jobs = 3%
● Secondary jobs = 18%
● Tertiary jobs = 78%
Environmental challenges:
● Only 40% of rubbish is officially collected and there are large rubbish dumps containing toxic waste
○ eg/ Olusosun rubbish dump
■ Dangerous and a hazard for health
■ Workers live at the dump → leading to an increase in squatter settlements
■ Natural gases often cause fires → difficult to extinguish
■ Only 13% of the dump is recycled
● Waste disposal and emissions from factories are not controlled → high levels of air/water pollution
● Traffic congestion is extremely bad → increase in greenhouse gas emissions