Introduction:
Location:
● Located in the northern hemisphere
● In the continent of Africa
● Largest city in Nigeria
● Situated on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea
and the Atlantic Ocean
● Lies directly above the equator
Key facts:
● Population: 21 million
○ Megacity
● Average earnings: £670 per year (2012)
● Waste: 10,000 tonnes per day
What Lagos is like:
● Lagos is the biggest and richest city in Nigeria
● Was the national capital until 1991
○ Still remains as the main financial centre for the whole of West Africa
● Reputation for poverty and corruption
● 300 tonnes of rubbish is recycled daily, by 5000 people
● Hardly any employment because people work in the informal economy
○ Informal sector = part of the economy that is not taxed/monitored by any form of government
■ eg/ street vendors, rubbish dump workers
○ Activities of informal sector are not included in the GDP of the country
○ 90% of jobs are in the informal sector
● No welfare system/benefits
● Polluted → air, noise, water, waste
● Weather is hot and humid (subtropical) → encourages disease and illness
● Rich in oil
● More than 275,000 migrants arrive every year → natural increase and population growth
History of Lagos:
● 1400 → Lagos was a tiny fishing village on an island
● 1462 → Portuguese settlers gave it the name “Lagos” (means “lakes” in portuguese)
● 1960 → Lagos was made the capital city of Nigeria and it gained independence from Britain
○ Population was under 1 million
● 1991 → the Nigerian capital was moved to Abuja (population of 4 million, in Lagos)
○ Abuja was a planned city
■ Accessible and central
■ Easy to get around, not too big/industrial
■ Safer
■ Needed to divide government (Abuja) from finance (Lagos)
● Lagos remained as country’s centre of trade and commerce
