Can better urbanization policies unlock faster economic growth and development in Nigeria?

At the moment the Nigerian state can’t guarantee competent pro-growth government throughout the country. Competently run pro-growth cities are the next best thing.

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I: Hyper-centralized stagnation vs multi-speed (urban) subnational development?

I recently developed an interest in (the history of) Nigeria’s manufacturing output and how policy might help accelerate growth in the sector (more on this in a future post). So far the one thing that keeps jumping at me is the extent to which large Nigerian cities are underperforming in their role as engines of rapid economic growth and development.

Despite their relatively large sizes, the available (albeit sparse) data reveal not processes of transformational urbanization but something akin to high-density ruralization. Informality is rampant. Firms stay small irrespective of their age. There is very little manufacturing (packaging imports doesn’t count). Urban planning is virtually absent. Policy coordination and manufacturing-enabling infrastructure are …