History of Lagos (EKO)
Lagos was originally inhabited by the Awori subgroup of the Yoruba people in the 15th century. The Awori moved to an island now called Iddo and then to the larger Lagos Island. The Aworis who were predominantly fishermen and hunters, called it Oko. Because the area was dominated by the then expansive Oyo Empire, they called it Eko, from the late 16th century to the mid-19th century. The name Eko was given to it by its first Awori traditional settlers, Oba Ado. Eko is still the native name for Lagos to date.

Lagos (Portuguese for "lakes" was a name given to the settlement by the Portuguese. Throughout history, it was home to a number of warring ethnic Yoruba groups who had settled in the area. Following its early settlement by the Awori nobility, the state first came to the attention of the Portuguese in the 15th century.

Portuguese explorer Rui de Sequeira visited the area in 1472, naming the area around the city Lago de Curamo, which means Lake of Curamo.

In Britain's early 19th century fight against the transatlantic slave trade, its West Africa Squadron or Preventative Squadron as it was also known, continued to pursue Portuguese, American, French and Cuban slave ships and to impose anti-slavery treaties with West African coastal chiefs with so much doggedness that they created a strong presence along the West African coast from Sierra Leone all the way to the Niger Delta (today's Nigeria) and as far south as Congo. In 1849, Britain appointed John Beecroft Consul of the Bights of Benin and Biafra, a position he held (along with his governorship of Fernando Po) until his death in 1854. John Duncan was appointed Vice Consul and was located at Wydah. At the time of Beecroft's appointment, the Kingdom of Lagos (under Oba Kosoko) was in the western part of the Consulate of the Bights of Benin and Biafra and was a key slave trading port. In 1851 and with pressure from liberated slaves who now wielded political and business influence, Britain intervened in Lagos in what is now known as the Bombardment of Lagos or Capture of Lagos resulting in the installation of Oba Akitoye and the ouster of Oba Kosoko. Oba Akitoye then signed the Treaty between Great Britain and Lagos abolishing slavery. The signing of the 1852 treaty ushered in the Consular Period in Lagos' history wherein Britain provided military protection for Lagos.

Following threats from Kosoko and the French who were positioned at Wydah, a decision was made by Lord Palmerston (British Prime Minister) who noted in 1861, "the expediency of losing no time in assuming the formal Protectorate of Lagos". William McCoskry, the Acting Consul in Lagos with Commander Bedingfield convened a meeting with Oba Dosunmu on 30 July 1861 aboard HMS Prometheus where Britain's intent was explained and a response to the terms were required by August 1861. Dosunmu resisted the terms of the treaty but under the threat to unleash a bombardment on Lagos by Commander Bedingfield, Dosunmu relented and signed the Lagos Treaty of Cession on 6 August 1861.

Lagos was declared a colony on 5 March 1862. The remainder of modern-day Nigeria was seized in 1887, and when the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria was established in 1914, Lagos became its capital, continuing as such after the country's independence from Britain in 1960. Along with migrants from all over Nigeria and other West African nations were the returnee ex-slaves known as Creoles, who came from Freetown, Sierra Leone, Brazil and the West Indies to Lagos. The Creoles contributed to Lagos' modernisation and their knowledge of Portuguese architecture can still be seen from the architecture on Lagos Island. Since the 19th century, Lagos gradually transformed to a melting pot of Africans and Europeans. Railway links and telephone cables connecting Lagos to London had been established by 1886. Electric street lighting was introduced in the city in 1898. 6Lagos experienced rapid growth throughout the 1960s and 1970s as a result of Nigeria's economic boom.

Before the creation of Lagos State on 27 May 1967, Lagos, which was the country's capital had been administered directly by the Federal Government as a Federal Territory through the Federal Ministry of Lagos Affairs, while the Lagos City Council (LCC) governed the city. Lagos, along with the towns from the then Western region (Ikeja, Agege, Mushin, Ikorodu, Epe and Badagry), were eventually captured to create Lagos State. Lagos city was split into the present day seven Local Government Areas (LGAs), while the other towns now make up 13 LGAs in the state. Lagos played the dual role of being the State and Federal Capital until 1976 when the state capital was moved to Ikeja. Lagos was adversely affected during Nigeria's military rule. Also, on 12 December 1991, the seat of the Federal Government was also formally relocated to Abuja. However, Lagos remains the financial centre of the country, and also grew to become the most populous conurbation in the country.

Economy

Apapa port
The city of Lagos is a major economic focal point in Nigeria, generating around 10% of the country's GDP. Most commercial and financial business is carried out in the central business district situated on the island. This is also where most of the country's commercial banks, financial institutions and major corporations are headquartered. Lagos is also the major Information Communications and Telecommunications (ICT) hub of West Africa and potentially, the biggest ICT market in the continent.Lagos is developing a 24-hour economy.

Ports
Lagos, its ports, airports, free trade zone and light rail system
The Port of Lagos is Nigeria's leading port and one of the largest and busiest in Africa. Due to the large urban population, Lagos is categorized as a medium-port megacity using the Southampton System for port-city classification. It is administered by the Nigerian Ports Authority. The following types of vessels regularly call at the port of Lagos: Fishing vessels (18%), container ships (14%), oil/chemical tankers (13%), bulk carriers (12%), offshore supply vessels (5%). The maximum length of vessels that have called at this port is 279 meters. The maximum draught is 13.5 m. The maximum carrying capacity is 113,306 t.
The port features a railhead. It is split into three main sections. The largest terminal is located in the Apapa district (Apapa Quays). This is where mainly general cargo is handled. Among other things, Apapa is home to a container port owned by the Danish company A. P. Møller-Mærsk, worth over one billion U.S. dollars. The next largest terminal is located on Tin Can Island. Containers and bulk cargo are handled here. The storage capacity of the silos is 28,000 tons of grain transported by Fleetwood Transportation. The terminal handles wheat, corn and malt, and can receive about 4000 tons of grain daily. The port facilities can handle vessels with a capacity of about 30,000 tons. There is also a grain bagging facility on the site. Third is the Lagos oil port north of Apapa Quays.

Entertainment industry and media
Lagos is the center of the West African film, music, and TV industries. The film industry in the Surulere locality ranks second or third in the world, ahead of or behind Hollywood, depending on the survey. Price water house Coopers Int. forecasts that the Nigerian entertainment industry will grow 85% to $15 billion.Since the success of the Nigerian thriller "The Figurine", Nigerian film has increasingly turned to high quality productions that are also commercially successful. This, in turn, has led to consistently new box office revenue records in Nigeria (2009's "The Figurine," 2013's "Half of a Yellow Sun," 2016's "The Wedding Party".

Lekki Free Trade Zone
Lekki Free Trade Zone (Lekki FTZ) is a free zone situated at the eastern part of Lekki, which covers a total area of about 155 square kilometres. The first phase of the zone has an area of 30 square kilometres, with about 27 square kilometres for urban construction purposes, which would accommodate a total resident population of 120,000. According to the Master Plan, the free zone will be developed into a new modern city within a city with integration of industries, commerce and business, real estate development, warehousing and logistics, tourism, and entertainment.
Lekki FTZ is divided into three functional districts; the residential district in the north, industrial district in the middle and commercial trading/warehousing & logistics district in the southeast. The "sub-centre" located in the south of the Zone is to be developed first. The region is close to the customs supervisory area, and it is mainly for commercial trading, logistics and warehousing operations. The second phase is located in the north of the Zone adjacent to E9 Road (Highway) which will serve as central business district of the free zone. The area along E2 Road will be developed for financial and commercial businesses, estate properties & supporting facilities, high-end production service industries and so on, which will link it to the sub-centre the Zone. The area along E4 Road will be utilized mainly for the development of logistics and industrial manufacturing/processing. A number of connection axes are also planned in-between the principal axis and the sub-axis, with multi-functional service nodes to serve the whole of Lekki FTZ. Dangote Refinery is currently being built in the Lekki Free Zone.

In the start-up area of the Lekki Free Trade Zone, there will be a Commercial & Logistics Park which will cover a total area of 1.5 square kilometres. The Park is planned to be multi-functional with the integration of commerce, trading, warehousing, and exhibition. According to the Site Plan of the park, large construction works will be built in the park, including the "international commodities & trade centre", the "international exhibition & conversation centre", industrial factory workshops, logistics warehouses, office buildings, hotels and residential apartment buildings, amongst others.

Oil refinery
Distilling column of the Dangote refinery in compare to a Saturn rocket, Until now, paradoxically, oil exporter Nigeria had to import its oil derivatives (mainly gasoline) and oil processing by-products such as polypropylene. For this reason, the Dangote Group built an oil refinery in the Lekki district, which is expected to be operational in 2022 (as of December 2021).[123] Job advertisements for this were placed in November 2021. The refinery is expected to process 650,000 barrels of oil per day when fully operational, and 327, 000 barrels of gasoline, 244,000 barrels of diesel, 56,000 barrels of aviation fuel, 800 megatons of propane, 2,500 megatons of polypropylene, and 100 megatons of sulfur. 9,000 direct jobs and 25,000 indirect jobs will be created by the refinery.
The oil industry has been a major polluter of Lagos' water sources for decades.

Software companies
Software companies in Lagos work mainly in the telecommunications, banking and education/employment services sectors. They are concentrated in the Lekki and Ikeja districts.
MTN maintains the first and still predominant 4G network in Nigeria. Airtel is another 4G provider. 9Mobile and Dataflex are Internet providers. Flutterwave is in the virtual bank card business. Opay is a platform for online bookings. Paystack is used by Nigerians who regularly receive payments from abroad. Andela trains software engineers and places them in the Nigerian job market. ULesson maintains a platform on which secondary school learning content is presented. Hotels.ng allows hotel bookings to be made throughout Africa.

Yaba has increasingly been a focal point with several software companies and engineering services companies set up around University of Lagos and Yabatech communities including Flutterwave and Andela. Several start up incubators and entrepreneurs hubs are also located in the area which is sometimes called Yabacon valley in reference to Silicon Valley.
Automotive Industry
Former Mercedes manager Oluwatobi Ajayi founded "Nord Automobiles Ltd" in the Sangotedo district in 2018. He benefited from the decline of the naira, which made importing vehicles unaffordable for many Nigerians. Nord has two assembly plants in Lagos: a 2,100 m2 plant in Sangotedo, where all eight models are currently assembled; the second 5,400 m2 plant in Epe is still under construction. Once completed, assembly of the models will be moved to the new plant, while component manufacturing will take place in Sangotedo. The company currently manufactures its own plastic parts and plans to add steel stamping in the future. "In the new plant, we could produce about 1,000 vehicles per month. But the market is not yet big enough to justify assembly on that scale. We've only been selling officially since September, and our orders are increasing by 20% to 30% per month," Ajayi adds. The company offers eight different models, with the 3-ton pickup, the Nord Tank, being the most popular. The others are the Nord Max (2.6-ton pickup), Nord A3 (sedan), Nord A5 (luxury SUV), Nord Flit minibus, Nord Yarn and Nord Tripper.

Fertiliser
A fertiliser production plant was commissioned in the Lekki Free Trade Zone on May 3, 2022. It will produce 3 million tonnes of fertiliser a year. Since Russian fertiliser is refrained from coming onto the world market due to the Ukraine war 2022, Nigeria fills a gap in the market.

Pharmaceutical industry
Nigeria hosts about 60 percent of the pharmaceutical production capacity in Africa (status 2022). The larger pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria are located in the North of Lagos. Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd appears to be the pharmaceutical producer with the most employees. Next in line are Fidson Healthcare Plc, May & Baker Nig. Plc and Swiss Pharma Nigeria.

Music and film industry
Lagos is famous throughout Africa for its music scene. Lagos has a vibrant nightlife and has given birth to a variety of styles such as Sakara music, Nigerian hip hop, highlife, juju, fuji and Afrobeats.
Lagos is the centre of the Nigerian movie industry, often referred to as 'Nollywood'. Idumota market on Lagos Island is the primary distribution centre. Many films are shot in the Festac area of Lagos, where the World Festival of Black Arts was held.
Iganmu is home to the primary centre for the performing arts and artistes in Nigeria: the National Arts Theatre.

James Brown performed in Lagos in 1970. With his band Wings, Paul McCartney recorded his fifth post-Beatles album, Band on the Run, in an EMI studio in Lagos in August and September 1973. Other foreign musicians who have also performed in the city include Sean Paul, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Akon, Jarule, Ashanti, Usher, Shaggy, R Kelly, Cardi B, Migos especially during the Star Mega Jam; Shakira, John Legend, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Boyz II Men, T-Pain, Brian McKnight, JayZ, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Brandy, Ciara, Keri Hilson and Lauryn Hill, among others.
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