Lagos, a chaotic and conquering megacity

It has become the jewel in the crown of Africa's leading economy: reputed several years ago for its violence, Lagos is charting its course from super megalopolis of the future and is setting milestones in virtually every economic sector. So much so that it has become an essential crossroads for all those who count in Africa and for all those who want to be part of it.

A metamorphosis that was not exactly a foregone conclusion: in the 1970s, the city had barely two million inhabitants and was seen as an unloved and financially asphyxiated capital. Paradoxically, this may be where it's at, as many people think, the key to its current success. Because, in 1991, the federal government, which had been keeping Lagos on a financial drip while its development was precarious, left it in the lurch and chose instead to make Abuja, further in the centre of the country, the capital of Nigeria. Lagos is almost breathing again, finally free to invent its own solutions.

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Today, no fewer than 21 million people live in a city of incomparable energy, even if the environment is still precarious. However, despite the capricious electricity, the almost non-existent pavements, the permanent building sites and the infernal traffic, the mega-city still manages to account for a third of the country's growth. GDP, at 136 billion dollars, also represents a third of the country's GDP. a third of national GDPThe city's population of around 1.5 million, and per capita income of around $5,000, is double the national average. Hence a sort of popular mantra that governs the inner workings of the city and is part of its DNA: Lagos is where you come to succeed. For, alongside a steady stream of migrants trying their luck, the city is home to four billionaires, 360 multimillionaires and 6,800 millionaires. Today's Lagos is home to $120 billion of African wealth.

The secret of Lagos

The secret? No doubt the three successive administrations of the city between 1999 and 2007 by Bola Tinubu, a former oil industry executive who put all his faith in the private sector. As a result, Lagos has not only become the base of the country's industrial and manufacturing industry, but has also become a major centre of economic activity. a pan-African financial centreIt has also established itself as an internationally important city on the fashion and art scene. It has even begun to seriously compete with other African capitals' reputation for innovation in the start-up sector.

However, the success of Lagos has been largely overshadowed by the misadventures of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country with 198 million inhabitants and the world's sixth largest oil exporter. With black gold providing 80 % of government revenue, a severe economic recession hit the country in the wake of the fall in oil prices in 2014.

Growth, which had become anaemic, is just beginning to regain a certain vigour. Even in times of high oil prices, Nigeria, which many observers believe to be riddled with corruption, has never managed to redistribute the oil windfall properly. Basic investments in infrastructure have not been made and thelow electricity generation - of 7000 MW - provides services to only a small fraction of the population, and then only very erratically. As a result, half of all Nigerians are without a source of electricity, and businesses have to rely on their own generators.

The education and health sectors have also been left fallow. No less than 13.2% of children do not attend school, the highest rate in the world according to UNICEF, while the wealthiest leave the country for medical care. Alongside the billionaires of Lagos stand a worrying realityWith a poverty rate of 50 % and unemployment ravaging the country, it has more than doubled in three years to 23 % of the working population. The national security situation has also deteriorated considerably, with attacks on oil installations. While the grip of the Boko Haram group in the north of the country has loosened, pockets of violence remain, showing that the jihadists are still far from being defeated. At the same time, the country is also in the grip of a deadly conflict between nomadic Muslim herders and Christian farmers.

Mini power plants

The genius of Lagos is that, unlike the 36 federal states dependent on state oil revenues, it has succeeded in making people forget this economic and security environment by relying solely on itself. Akinwunmi Ambode, who became governor of the region in 2015, has decided to double infrastructure projects and has pledged to completely transform the city. For Olabode George, a local politician, "The entire Lagos region has become a veritable construction site, where new roads are being built, while old ones are being renovated, extended and modernised. Residential and office buildings that fail safety tests are simply demolished to make way for new commercial and residential centres."he described in an interview with the Nigerian media Eagle.

The governor has gone so far as to sign a law committing himself to supplying electricity continuously to the whole of Lagos State. The city already has its own network powered by alternative energies, but it wants to go further. In exchange for financial guarantees granted to private generators, Lagos should soon find itself surrounded by mini power stations designed to provide all the energy the megalopolis needs for its development. Plus, a gigantic oil refinery The $12 billion cement plant built by billionaire Aliko Dangote is due to open on the outskirts of the city by 2022, and is set to revolutionise the country by transforming it into a producer and exporter of refined petroleum products. This could revolutionise the Nigerian economy, especially as Lagos is also counting on the construction of fertiliser and petrochemical plants.

Creative ferment

In other words, the city is paving the way for the realisation of its considerable ambitions. Already an industrial giant, Lagos certainly doesn't want to miss out the digital revolution and is already competing with the 'Silicon Savannah' in Nairobi, Kenya. Most of the start-ups are located in the Yaba district, which the Lagos authorities have rapidly equipped with high-speed internet access. Thanks to the concomitant development of telecommunications and online payment solutions, new start-ups are rapidly lining up to become the Nigerian giants of tomorrow. Many are housed in incubators such as Co-Creation Hub or Andela, a structure set up by American entrepreneur Jeremy Johnson and supported by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The city's inventive and creative ferment also attracts the international fashion and art sectors. Since 2011, Lagos Fashion Week has become a well-established annual event. Alongside its mission to promote the Nigerian industry and African fashion, it has developed master class activities and a business incubator. Since 2007, the megalopolis has also been on the radar of international art buyers. That was the year that Indian-born London collector Kavita Chellaram founded Arthouse Contemporary, an auction house for modern and contemporary art from West Africa. This is a turning point for Nigerian artists, who until now have faced a static and undervalued market. Art X Lagosthe region's biggest art fair, also took the market by storm three years ago, welcoming 10,000 people in 2017.

Ultra-rich collectors, builders, the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, but also the great forgotten of development: Lagos is moving forward in a kind of conquering chaos to secure its place as one of the world's leading megacities of the future.

NIGERIA