(est. pop. 18,000,000)
Lagos is Nigeria's largest city, its administrative and economic center, and its chief port. Industries include railroad repair, motor vehicle assembly, food processing, and the manufacture of metal products, textiles, beverages, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, soap, and furniture. The city is a road and rail terminus and has an international airport. An old Yoruba town, Lagos, beginning in the 15th cent., grew as a trade center and seaport. From the 1820s until it became a British colony
Like most capital cities of the world, Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria is known worldwide for its bustling business activities. It is Nigeria's largest city, chief port and economic and cultural centre. Apapa is the chief port district, on the mainland. With an area of approximately 43 square kilometers, Lagos comprises several islands and the adjacent mainland areas. Notable among the places on the Island are Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Isale-Eko; the Mainland is made up of Ebute-Metta, Yaba, Surulere, Apapa, Ikeja and Agege among others. The State can boast of probably one of the best International airports in the country, which is located in Ikeja, the capital of the State. Ikeja and its environs take the lion share in the location of industries, but Lagos Island has the highest concentration of retail/commercial outlets and bureaucracy. There is a Federal Secretariat, located in Ikoyi on Lagos Island and the commercial nerve centre of Lagos is Broad Street, close to the Marina. There are also two seaports - Apapa Port and Tin Can Island Port, both in Apapa while the Iddo terminus belongs to the Railway Corporation.
Lagos is the commercial and industrial hub of Nigeria, with a GNP that triples that of any other West African country. Lagos has greatly benefited from Nigeria's natural resources in oil, natural gas, coal, fuel wood and water. Light industry was prevalent in post-independence Nigeria and petroleum-related industry dominated in the 1970's, directly affecting the rapid growth of Lagos.
Oil production, which began in the 1950's, increased seven-fold between 1965 and 1973, while world oil prices skyrocketed. By 1978, the metropolitan area accounted for 40% of the external trade of Nigeria and was home to at least 40% of the national skilled population. The global recession of 1981, which precipitated a sharp fall in oil prices, sent Lagos reeling into debt and runaway inflation that persisted for a more than a decade but has recently declined. As a result, a massive programme of infrastructure and social services expansion came to an abrupt halt.
Lagos: it takes an average of two to three hours to travel 10-20 kilometres. A high-speed, elevated metro-liner is in the planning stages.
Since 1985, state urban renewal plans have concentrated on upgrading the environment of slum communities by building roads and drainage channels and providing water supply, electricity, schools and health clinics. With cooperation from the citizens, success has been recorded in a number of pilot urban renewal schemes, which focus on building roads and drainage channels and providing water supply, electricity, schools and health clinics.
Lagos is Nigeria’s financial, commercial and industrial nerve centre with over 2,000 manufacturing industries and over 200 financial institutions (Banks, Insurance companies etc) including the nation’s premier stock exchange, the Nigeria Stock Exchange.
It also houses the nation’s monetary authority, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). The State alone harbours 60% of the Federation’s total industrial investments and foreign trade while also attracting 65% of Nigeria’s commercial activities. It also accounts for more than 40% of all labour emoluments paid in the country.
Indeed, the headquarters of multinational conglomerates like UAC, Unilever, John Holts, BEWAC/VYB, Leventis, Churchgate, Chevron, Shell, Exxonmobil and the nation’s giant public enterprises are all located within the State.
However, Lagos State is not industrially saturated. There exists a vast potential of underdeveloped land in the Eti-Osa Area of Lagos, Badagry, Epe, Ikeja and Ikorodu Divisions.
In a bid to decongest the Ikeja and Lagos Industrial Estates and thus open up other areas for development, the State Governement has provided small scale industrial estates in all of the State’s 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Development Councils
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:78CDFGy6SE0J:https://apps.atlantaga.gov/sister/lagos/nigeria/lagos.html+lagos+state+histrory&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
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