Nigeria is facing a worsening urban sanitation crisis as rapid population growth, accelerating urbanisation and decades of underinvestment continue to overwhelm existing infrastructure, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said.
The warning came yesterday in Abuja at the launch of Nigeria’s Urban Sanitation Diagnostic Report under the African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII), where stakeholders disclosed that only about 20 per cent of Nigerians currently have access to safely managed sanitation services despite the country’s rapidly expanding population.
They warned that unless urgent investments are made, Nigeria’s population, projected to exceed 400 million by 2050 and approach 500 million before the end of the century, could place unprecedented pressure on cities, threatening public health, environmental sustainability and economic development.
Speaking at the event, AfDB’s Division Manager for Water and Sanitation, Mrs Jeanne-Astrid Ngako, described Nigeria’s demographic expansion as one of Africa’s biggest urban development challenges.
She said the critical question was no longer whether urbanisation would continue, but whether millions of Nigerians would have access to safe sanitation services that support healthy, productive and resilient cities.
“The decisions we make today will determine whether our cities provide dignity, opportunity and prosperity for future generations,” she said.
Ngako stressed that urban sanitation should be treated as a national development priority rather than merely a sectoral concern, calling for stronger collaboration among the federal and state governments, development partners, civil society organisations and the private sector.
