Onitsha, the great commercial and industrial city in Africa, is the third most populated urban area in Africa and second in Nigeria.

Onitsha, the great commercial and industrial city in Africa, is the third most populated urban area in Africa and second in Nigeria.

Onitsha is the only city, outside of major cities like Abuja and Lagos, that resembles a fully occupied human city in Nigeria. Other cities in Nigeria tend to sprawl out in low-density, animalistic slums, despite the high demand for housing and expensive land prices. A Turkish friend of mine, who visited Nigeria, remarked that Nigeria is the only country where people will spend $100,000 to buy a plot of land in the city center and construct a one-story or even a bungalow.

In his country and other parts of Europe and Asia, people build taller multi-story buildings to accommodate as many people as possible on expensive land. During his visit to Ibadan, Lagos, Kano, and Onitsha, he confirmed to me that Onitsha is the only city in sub-Saharan Africa that resembles countries like India, China, Turkey, and Indonesia in the 1980s, before they modernized.

The image below doesn’t even resemble Africa; it looks more like China, Vietnam, or the Philippines in the 1980s.