Our Lagos, A Home For All

As the World’s population is becoming progressively urban, sustainable development challenges are increasingly concentrated in cities. It is estimated that more than a billion people live in deprived urban areas, mainly in low- and middle-income countries (LIMCs). Urbanization has become a main stay characteristic of Nigerian Cities; Lagos inclusive as human population and settlements define such cities. Lagos, with a teeming population of over 20 million and a growth rate of 3.2% has almost all of this population in living in Urban Lagos. Population influx into Lagos is a direct reflection of the economic opportunities and security offered by the state.
Urbanization does not necessarily have to work against a city if its potentials are properly harnessed. Some of the opportunities that come with urbanization include creativity and innovations, development of economies and technological advancement across several spheres of human life. Challenges associated with urbanization have not prevented the state from opening her doors and making it a home for all.
Thus, Lagos adopted physical planning and plan preparation as a tool for social inclusion. This process gave birth to preparation of physical development plans which were targeted at already identified activity centres in the State. This process embraced citizen participation which accurately signifies social inclusion as advocated by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) as well as the mantra of the New Urban Agenda 2030 of leaving no one behind.
These plan proposals created several Central Business Districts (CBDs) as against one which had been in existence and these plans opened up several new towns. For the city of Lagos with the smallest land area (3,577km2) and a population of about 22million, affordable housing amidst soaring property prices became out of reach for many citizens. However, the government sprang into action by providing an enabling environment for public private partnership in the housing sector to negotiate affordable housing. Some of such schemes include streamlined approval processes, tax incentives, and exploration of innovative financing mechanism.
Through the above, the housing stock in the state has increased particularly around the metropolis. Hitherto abandoned housing schemes have been completed using local and durable materials, indigenous firms, credit facilities, rebate to teachers and health workers in their localities among others.
In addition, plan implementations are all geared towards provisions of SDG 11.1 of affordable housing, provision of basic services and slum upgrading. This provision has been localized by providing housing schemes in major divisions, channelization of some canals to mitigate flooding in flood-prone areas, provision of basic services in slum communities in order to make Lagos home to all irrespective of their economic status.
The indigenous land-pooling exercise that has encouraged vertical development of buildings in areas of land fragmentation among many other interventions. These are peculiar initiatives that Lagos has adopted to increase housing stock in the state.