Economic development in urban Nigeria. Urbanisation Research Nigeria (URN) Research Report.

Abstract

Nigeria has seen remarkable economic growth in recent years, linked to a potentially transformative urbanisation process, and based on large-scale demographic and social change. The key issue of why high rates of economic growth in recent years have not been translated in urban settings into real improvements in economic opportunity – employment creation, livelihood provision and poverty reduction – is, however, as yet largely unaddressed, as is the contribution of infrastructural investments and improvements to urban productivity.

Moreover, there is a limited understanding, at overall or sectoral level, of the country’s current economic geography (and specifically industrial location), and of sector-level organisation and performance (formal or informal, whether manufacturing or service) in Nigeria’s urban/metropolitan regions, cities or towns.

The research in this report aims to contribute to better knowledge about the urban economic growth and performance of cities and towns in Nigeria and considers:

  • The overall composition of the national, regional and local economies in the formal and informal sectors, and the broad emerging spatial patterns of agglomeration.
  • Economic performance in the formal and informal manufacturing and service sectors, and the contribution of urban infrastructures to productivity enhancement.
  • The economic development policy and the institutional environment at the federal, state and local levels, and within national development policy and programming.

The methodological approach to the research involved both primary and secondary data analysis.

Citation

Bloch, R.; Makarem, N.; Yunusa, M.; Papachristodoulou, N.; Crighton, M. Economic development in urban Nigeria. Urbanisation Research Nigeria (URN) Research Report. ICF International, London, UK (2015) iii + 77 pp.

Economic development in urban Nigeria. Urbanisation Research Nigeria (URN) Research Report.

Published 1 January 2015