₦airaland Forum

The posts of city pics were quite eye opening, one gets to actually 'see' the country in question. Truth be told, south Africa is leagues above the rest. But many are gradually catching up

Some Kenyan cities

Eldoret

https://www.jamiiforums.com/mobile-gallery/b22080ff524f71611f712597006da5ee.jpg

PissedYagami:
Many Africans view other Africans as very backward. Like tbh I always thought DRC was a shitty country with war. Thought Kinshasa was like Mogadishu. But thats not the case, Kinshasa is quite good looking

I remember saying here once, take a trip around Africa and you'll be stunned. Even for Somalia, the country everyone believes is bombed to Smithereens, they've got this 2 amazing towns called hargeisa and barawa.

On the issue of Nairobi and slums, they're quite a bunch in existence, the living situation in these slums is usually very nauseating. But then their size and population are but a tiny fraction of what is stated in blogs

There existence is largely due to the segregation in settlement for the haves, have nots and those in between. you'll never see in most of Kenya an estate containing a shanty sandwiched in between a bungalow and a 1-2 bedroom apartments flat on either side. This is caused by affordability of provisions whereby one settles where they can buy daily requirements at a rate they're comfortable with. It's the same thing in SA, Botswana and Egypt. In direct contrast, my observation of Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ivory coast is that Estates normally contain houses for all classes of people side by side. This could explain why real estate development, formal retail penetration and also numbers of slums aren't as high as the former mentioned countries.

naijalander:
Talk is cheap.

Reasoning should be cheaper I suppose, don't be blind to reason.

ianSweet:
AfroCircus, Muafrika2, KenyanStar et al
Now i can see why Kenya atttacts so many tourists, seems like most of them just want to see what the largest slum (concentration of poverty) in Africa looks like.
With all the foreign aid, why are so many slums still in Nairobi?

You talking from a Utopia or something? Nairobi has its fair share of slums and the 60% people perceived as living in slums is inclusive of low income highrise Estates like pipeline, umoja, imara daima etc. Lagos is 66% slums

ianSweet:
Gosh, i can't imagine Nigeria's capital city ABUJA, the largest planned modern city in Africa with over 3 million inhabitants with the kind of slums Nairobi has.

Nairobi's slums are even more famous than the main city itself, well that's not surprising considering the large size and numbers of the slums.

Kenyans really need to learn from Nigeria what it takes to build a capital city to meet world standards.
Even Lagos city, the largest city in Africa (with about 20 million people) had only One slum Makoko which has now been demolished, but Nairobi that is not up to one quarter of Lagos has the largest and highest number of slums. What an abyssmal shame!

The worst part of all these is that u find the Indians who milk Kenya's rescources in the wealthiest neighbourhoods while the black majority languish in these kinds of dejected neighbourhoods and the same colonial Indians will be the people to brainwash my black brothers that skin colour does not matter.

O ye black man, who has bewitched you like this?

A small part of makoko was demolished and the folks protested all over. And makoko has got to be among the most worrying places to live in, a slum on top of a swampy sewage!

Please don't lie, I hate soiling other countries and unearthing hidden skeletons but such a huge lie after such blatant soiling can't go unanswered. here's a list of some slums there (won't give pictures unless prompted to

Makoko
Agege
Ajegunle
Amukoko
Badia
Bariga
Bodija
Ijeshatedo/Itire
Ilaje
Iwaya
Mushin
Oke-Offa Babasale
Somolu

naijalander:
Mehn your HDI can eat a deek!

Ignorance is venomous, and it murders the soul

A 10 year old Chinese kid is assembling a watch somewhere for his homework, yet here you are, an adult Internet warrior with absolutely no perception of what HDI is

ianSweet:
This was the way Europeans came and met Nigerian tribes with cities not in forests and mountains like Kenyan tribes who were running all over butt-naaked.

Uhm, I see oil barrels and electricity lines in the left of the 1st picture, which is dated the same time as the second picture. You sure those ain't pics of present day Bamako, Mali you try to pass as ancient Nigeria?

ianSweet:
Yes, Arabs, and undoubtedly, the Arabs contributed more to the building of these ancient cities, it's obvious from the architecture and other factors.
This is the difference with the Nigerian case. In Nigeria, our ancient cities were 100% owned and built by our own empires and kingdoms, there was no single foreign input.

I want to see the ancient Kenyan city that was purely and wholly built by the sweat of the Kikuyus, Kalenjins, Luos e.t.c under the rulership of their kingdoms and empires.

To begin with, the Arabs found these Swahili cities in existence with the Swahili people speaking a swahili dialect nowadays found in Comoros with no Arab or other foreign loan words. The loan worded version emerged to facilitate trade, the some way there is Sheng Swahili now in Kenyan cities. The oldest of the Swahili cities dated in the 1st century existed before Arabs settled in the African coast

2nd thing, the design of the latter buildings in these cities (by later I mean 13th century +) was inspired by but differs from the Arabian architecture. 1st, they were all made from coral while Arab cities were mostly rocks. Roofing of swahili cities was by makuti, a local plant weaving design while for Arabs, it's mostly rock slabs. The urban design of Arab streets were wide enough to accommodate several chariots side by side. For Swahili cities, streets were built narrow to facilitate only donkey mounted people or pedestrians.

The 2 are clearly very different though Swahili architecture was inspired a lot by the Arabs, the same way European architecture was inspired by the same Arabs while the Arabs borrowed a leaf from the far East. It's called learning and improving.

Damn 243 pages of hapless yapping and rubbishing of each other's countries, 243 pages!

And the most hilarious post I read was someone downplaying Kenya's higher HDI. Do you even know what HDI is? It is a very comprehensive representation of the qualitative and quantitave advancement of a nation, the development level of a country, a measure of how better off a country is on average in most aspects of life. Once your country is below a certain other country in the HDI rank, it goes a long way to show that your country IS the lesser developed of the 2, even though in certain aspects yours may actually be better than the other country. You can't downplay that

iblawi:
They don't really have electricity in kenya. Only 75% of their 2000MW is actually generated.

KenGen produces 75% of Kenya's installed capacity, the remaining 25% is produced by other companies. That's the meaning of that statement.

Dear forgiveness, nice write-ups, to be frank there are a lot of nigerian MNCs I did not know. But I only posted 1 (the largest) in each sector or 2 where I wasn't sure who's the largest. Doesn't mean they're the only ones

Petroleum sector :-

kenolkobil is in 12 countries with just a little less revenue than Oando as at 2014. Write now I think it has more revenue than your giant since oandos revenues shrank yoy for the past 2 years.
-Hashi energy with operations in 5 countries.
- National Oil corporation of Kenya (NOCK), an upstream petroleum Co that's in 3 nations. With entry plans in 4 others (The 2 Sudans, DRC and Tz) at an advanced stage
Your Heyden is not in Russia, UAE and Europe, it only has agreements with refineries there to buy oil at reduced prices and be the market's cheapest option. The same way Hashi has such with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait

That to me is a draw

Insurance sector :-

-KenyaRe - this is a real giant with branches in 62 countries across Africa, the middle east and Asia.
-BRITAM is in the 7 countries I named earlier.
-CIC Insurance Group Limited operates mainly in
Kenya, Uganda , South Sudan and Malawi.
-UAP insurance group is in Kenya, Uganda , South Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania , the Democratic Republic of Congo , and Mauritius
-liberty insurance - they just say all over Africa.

Kenya wins here.

Banking :-

No need to mince words here, Nigeria is the winner

Telecommunications:-
Safaricom is bigger than glo in terms of revenue.
Safaricom's network provisions department is limited to Kenya since a shareholder, vodacom is active in Africa. But it's mobile money department is in eastern Europe, middle east, Asia and Northern, eastern central and Southern Africa (don't know why they haven't gone West)

Kenya wins by a slight (unfair) margin

Beverages

-EABL and Keroche breweries are of course larger than any alcohol maker in Nigeria.
-Highlands Co, initially only dealing with water is now giving coca Cola a scare in the soda business

Until you post more on Naija, kenya wins

[b] food processing [b]

-BIDCO is the largest producer, marketer and retailer of consumer goods in Africa with operations in 16 countries
-pwani oil is one of the world's leaders in vegetable oil, soaps and fats. Has distribution networks in 9 countries

Kenya wins

To be continued...

68816419:
All new buildings(UNLIKE Nairobi that have ugly buildings built by the whites colonist "

About 80% of Nairobi cbd and 90% of the rest of the city was planned and built from the late 60s to mid 80s after independence, by Kenyan technocrats fresh from learning abroad. The Nairobi colonialists left and it's plan was a small and fledgling town

highheybee:
Chai..see as wikipedia makes someone clueless.... there's a mall in osogbo but your wiki didn't include it...who knows how many

There's another mall in bungoma that my wiki didn't include (didn't know I own wiki), and many more from all countries, but it does give a snapshot of how generally things are. But you are free to edit it and add the mall as long as you got a link pointing to its existence.

KenyaMan111:
Do ever get tired of intellectually smacking him around? hahaha His desperation to find fault in Kenya is truly showcasing itself.

Not that I enjoy doing it at all coz correcting an adult sane being every now and then is almost like doubting his/her sanity, which isn't good. But once you post solid facts, no one will be on your case. He should borrow a leaf from forgiveness

iblawi:
Am sure you are not OK. How did you come to that useless conclusion. Have you been there to see for yourself? You just spit rubbish to feel better.

You flow nothing better you are still below us in every way. Abuja alone have more malls than Nairobi.

You just foolishly claimed Nigerians don't shop in malls but you have just 3 million people in Nairobi out of over 45 million in kenya. So where is the remaining 42 million people shop in kenya.

Don't think you are talking to a fool like you.

https://www.unicef.org/kenya/overview_4616.html
From this report 44 million Kenyan live below poverty line out of how many. You must be foolish to compare yourself with Nigerians.

This again shows more than 2/3 of Kenyans in Nairobi live in slums. So how do Kenyans shop in Malls.

You're one bitter person. The 3 million people in Nairobi are served by 27malls while 180m Nigerians are served by 30 malls. The rest of Kenya with 41m ppl is served by 64 malls compared to the 30 for Nigeria's 180m ppl. So contrary to what you imply, retail development in the rest of Kenya outside of Nairobi is still more than that of Nigeria inclusive of Lagos and Abuja. And Nairobi alone(696km)has almost as many malls as entire Nigeria (923,768km)

Then that unicef link you posted clearly says 42% of 44m Kenyans lived below the poverty line prior to devolution. Read articles entirely before posting. And so I see you went searching for derogatory articles on Kenya and yet when a Kenyan reciprocates you'll cry foul.

forgiveness:
EABL vs NBPLc

EABL has installations in 6 countries in East and Southern Africa but sells it's products (mostly Tusker) as far as US and Australia

Nigerian Breweries pls service West Africa.

TKO EABL wins.


Nakumatt vs Silver Birds group

-Nakumatt and Uchumi the 2 largest retailers from Kenya have operations in 6 (mostly East African) countries

Africa. Silverbird also possesses the largest cinema chain in West Africa with several locations in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Uyo and Accra, Ghana and Kenya.

TKO Nakumatt wins in


Uchumi (27 stores in Kenya) vs Addide (37 stores in Nigeria)


As you can see Addide is the winner.

If you're talking about branches, Tuskys has 50 branches in Kenya alone while Addide has 37. Uchumi on the other hand has has bigger money since half of its outlets are in gigantic malls while Addide owns mostly medium to large sized outlets to cater for the powerful lower middle class

Oxtonguy:
That is the Eko Atlantic city under construction

More of it

Don't see how that differs from what I said, it is a render, non existent. Any 1 wanting to see it will have to postpone his trip to Nigeria for about 5-10yrs.

Then the tower you are claiming to see in different angles all over in all Nairobi pics is in only 1 pic in the past 5 pages so where are you seeing it from. Are you in Nairobi? Or is it in your Album?

Oxtonguy:
Empty talk


LAGOS [b][/b]

What's up with all your 2nd last photos because this time round it's a render, non existent. Though the others ain't bad

I think you need to update your album.

Oxtonguy:
LAGOS AT NIGHT

Uhm, the 2nd last pic is actually Nairobi, the city you're trying to deride. This ain't the first time you guys have done that and certainly doesn't seem like the last. Reposting same things including mistakes

forgiveness:
Safal group vs Ladol, or vs GZI industries

Safal group is Africa's largest producer of steel roofing with operations in 11 countries.

Ladol LADOL are engaged in any of the following: Shipbuilding; Engineering, procurement and construction; Deepwater offshore exploration and production; Oil & gas services; Pipe coating; Steel construction, Mooring services; Vessel and rig repairs; and Training. Provide services to international and West Africa and International.

If you are not satisfied with that, then GZI industry will do.

GZ Industries is West Africa’s leading aluminum can manufacturer, expanding rapidly to sub saharan Africa.
Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya.


Shipbuilding company all the way.



Kenya Airways vs Afrik air

Kenya Airways is one of Africa's largest airline company with operations in almost every African capital (44 destinations in Africa, 54 in total)


Afrik air with operations in 11 countries (America, London, Dubai and some African countries)

kenya airways wins here.



KCB kenya vs First Bank

KCB and Equity, Kenya's largest banks have operations in 7 & 6 countries in Eastern Africa respectively.

FirstBank is the biggest bank in Nigeria by total deposits and gross earnings and operates a network of over 750 business locations across Africa, the United Kingdom and representative offices in Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Johannesburg, South Africa, DR Congo, Ghana, Sierra Leon, Guinea, France and Senegal.


TKO First Bank wins


Equity Bank vs UBA Nigeria



United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, is one of Africa's leading banking Groups with operations in 19 African countries and offices in three global financial centers: London, Paris and New York.


Another TKO. UBA wins


Nigeria no be small pikin.


Watch out, more to come.

Nice, like the detailed reply but lemme differ here and there

LADOL is an industrial free zone where MNCs dealing in West African oil and gas set up operations to enjoy tax free benefits, the same way athi river is an industrial zone in Nairobi for MNCs dealing in manufacturing. So why you comparing an MNC with an industrial zone

Then GZI reached its max capacity of 1.2bn cans in 2012, sounds like a whole lot. At 14.5g for each can, that's an output of about 17,400 tonnes. If you compare that with safal's Mabati (steel and aluminium) rolling mills plant in athi that had an output of 250,000 tonnes in 2012,thats very little. Keep in mind that safal has 35 plants across Africa and Asia! GZI is planning it's first plant in south Africa while SAFAL has 2 plants there already and is planning another. No contest

Your banking is bigger than Kenya's, that I agree, knew you'd dwell there for long...but I got respect for your big banks, though ours are expanding much faster.

Waiting for more

naijalander:
The leaders in both countries are controlled by multinational corporations. Like Nigeria too only in Nigeria the indigenes have slightly more contribution than in either Kenya or SA.

Mind you black people are already ruining SA, call me a self hating racist but take a look around you after to understand what I mean.

Not an insult, just an honest question. Have you ever been out of Nigeria, out of West Africa and preferably to the other African geopolitical regions?

forgiveness:
At least, it debunked @proudlykenyan lies Nigerian companies don't run downstream or whatever and Kenyan has better oil companies than Nigeria.

Nevertheless, I have learnt something.


Erin petroleum Co is owned by a Nigerian with operations in USA, China, Nigeria, Ghana and Gambia even Kenya, etc.

The Chairman and CEO is African-American businessman, Dr Kase Lukman Lawal. John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Company, is on the board and will become the Chairman in 2016.

It was founded in 2005 as CAMAC Energy and has offices in Houston, Texas, Beijing, China, and Lagos, Nigeria.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAMAC_Energy

Everywhere I've searched points at Erin (CAMAC formarly) being an American company but with specialization in African oil exploration. Mind providing a link stating otherwise?

You were to add more Nigerian MNCs for every Kenyan in each sub-sector I posted, I wonder what happened to that...

@forgiveness, well let's count. Kenolkobil operates in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia, Ethiopia and Mozambique. It then acquired BP's stake in the new markets of Namibia, Botswana and Malawi and also in countries it already had a presence such as Tanzania and Zambia so the total is 11 countries. Add to that the new outlets it opened in South Sudan and we have 12 countries now. Could've been 13 but they exited DRC this Feb

Oando plc 2015 revenue was $1.02bn (N381bn) while Kenolkobil 2015 revenue was $ 0.93bn (ksh 92bn),pretty much the same size when compared side by side.

Erin petroleum Co is an American Co.

forgiveness:
.
How many of these have gone beyond East Africa?

I think very few but I may be wrong. Then prove me wrong.

You haven't given evidence to support your statement of Nigerian companies being all over, yet you ask for Kenyan companies'. I'll give an example in each sub-sector anyway

-kenolkobil is the largest downstream oil Company in the region with operations in 11 countries
-BIDCO, with operations in 16 countries is the largest producer, marketer and retailer of consumer goods in Africa
-Safal group is Africa's largest producer of steel roofing with operations in 11 countries.
-Kenya Airways is one of Africa's largest airline company with operations in almost every African capital (44 destinations in Africa, 54 in total)
-KCB and Equity, Kenya's largest banks have operations in 7 & 6 countries in Eastern Africa respectively
-Nakumatt and Uchumi the 2 largest retailers from Kenya have operations in 6 (mostly East African) countries
-EABL has installations in 6 countries in East and Southern Africa but sells it's products (mostly Tusker) as far as US and Australia
-Serena Hotels has luxury resort outlets in Eastern and Southern Africa and also in Central and South East Asia (Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan with another planned for India)
-Britam group, à company offering insurance, asset management, banking and property investment has operations in 7 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa
-Centum investment Co, a holding Co dealing with virtually everything has operations in 10+ Countries all over the continent. It even owned Nigeria's African Capital Alliance but sold it's stake last year.
-Brookside dairies has installations and acquisitions in 8 nations including Nigeria

There are more I don't know but will add when I get to know them. You give Nigerian examples in as many sectors as you can.

arinzeejikonye:
Why do Kenyans enjoy the negativities of naija.n tend to ignore their own.it seems we would begin to focus on the negativities of kenya

Quick to spot the wrongs of a rival but turn a blind eye to those of a comrade

I'm not supporting the Kenyans or South Africans on this forum posting the ills of Nigeria, can never do that but I think you should have started by rebuking your countrymen.

The thread started by a Nigerian noting that Kenya might be ahead of Nigeria in development. Kenyans naturally supported the statement with facts but then some Nigerians started badmouthing Kenya. The Kenyans responded in kind and somehow, South Africa was tagged into this isht. Some Nigerian once more grumbled about South Africa and things regarding that went south quickly. A wrong of course doesn't correct another wrong but the 1st wrong doer started all this and should be rebuked 1st

68816419:
keep deceiving yourselves while Indians take over your country, the biggest estates in Kenya are either owned by whites or Indians, westerland,Ngara, Parkland e.t,c the industrial estates,supermarkets(Nakumat(biggest in east Africa)), hotels,Banks and even the so call "big business " are 100% owned by Indians,Somalis, Nigerians and whites, same goes to Nakuru and Eldoret, the richest people in Kenya are politicians the average Kenya are too poor they can only attend university when loans(http://www.helb.co.ke/) are provided to them, whalahi, there shouldn't be any based for comparison between Nigeria and Kenya, the only nice places in Nairobi is CBD and the upcoming Upper hill and may be other places dominated by Indians and Whites. PLZ PEOPLE SHOULD STOP THIS STUPID COMPARISON

The best Estates in Nairobi are Muthaiga, Runda, Karen, Lavington, Kitisuru etc,, are they dominated by Indians and whites? Then to the upper middle income Estates, ever been to hurlingham, Langata, Nairobi West, South B, South C, parkland? Of those only parklands is predominantly Indian Westlands and ngara are more of districts than Estates and Indians and whites don't even make 20% of their residents. Eastleigh is practically a little Mogadishu with mostly somalis and some Ethiopians with their Gdp of $1.2bn being half that of entire Somalia, but Nairobi alone is about $40bn. eastleigh is just about 3% of Nairobi's gdp, not really controlling the economy

Nakumatt is owned by an Indian Kenyan, true, but what of Tuskys, Uchumi, Naivas etc. All big Kenyan banks are black owned, the largest industrial plants are BIDCO, the western Kenya Sugar plants and Tea mills and Nairobi's steel mills, is it just Indians and whites owning these? Get your stats right. I know the Indians and whites own a disproportionately large part of the economy, but they're far from being in control, far far off.

Hehe, interesting attacks from my Nigerian brodas. Understating something to deem it smaller than what you have is quite weak.

The Kenyan SGR is her largest project u/C currently. Phase 1, which is 480km long (with 609kms of tracks) is 90% complete, phase 2 is 5% through with the entire project having 1300km of tracks from Mombasa to Malaba, 1185km from malaba into Kampala with 4 branches in the country and lastly 350km through Rwanda, the final destination.

Currently, the LAPPSET project currently u/c with a total cost of $23bn isn't said to be Kenya's largest since it has many individual project components. And here's it's components and progress so far :-

Lamu Port with 32 berths ($3.095bn)- construction of first 3 berths underway
1700km Highway ($1.398bn) - 800km complete
1710km Railway ($7.099bn)- 0km complete
3 intn'l airports ($0.506bn)- 3 airports complete
2240km Crude oil pipeline ($3.949bn)- Tender awarded to Japanese firm
120,000bpd refinery ($2.8bn) - nothing done.
3 resort cities ($1.21bn)- 2 u/c (Isiolo and Lamu)
1 dam (high grand falls) ($2.11bn)- don't really know anything here.
Associated electricity supply infrastructure ($2.5bn)- power lines and station to mostly complete.

Just as a side note, given how fast Abuja has been developing, I don't think it's peek is anywhere near. A wise Cape Town or Nairobi would be wary of her

Wow! So many here suffer from delusions of grandeur, nationalism is making many blind to facts.

In your vacation, take a flight to different countries and don't just keep to the big cities. If your views about these countries ' development level doesn't change, then I think you're just insanely patriotic.

I've been to Bloemfontein (kisumu' s sister city) and Capetown, mostly within the city bowl and areas like strand though I've been to the forgotten outskirts like khayelitsha (it's improved a lot though). Nairobi is my home and I thus know it. Was in Abuja which to me seemed very sparse with most of its buildings being very grand and glassy but look like business parks and not integrated into the city really. been to Lagos only once so I can't really say I know that great city well but I liked the marina area. And lastly, there's a business trip we did in Algeria, from Constantine to Oran. I can tell you that when ranked from developed to least developed, Algerian tops, followed by SA, Kenya and then Nigeria. The major undoing for Nigeria isn't even insufficient roads, it's the lack of urban planning.

forgiveness:
I am talking about both. Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt(to some extent) can be compared with Nairobi in terms of infrastructures and development.

These cities are developed and financial buoyant enough.

They are one of foreigners choice destinations for investments.

Calabar was formerly the capital of Nigeria, Ibadan was the capital of Western region. At it height, it was the same with Nairobi in terms of infrastructures and development, Enugu was the capital of Eastern region and Kano is the financial Headquarters of the Northern region

Nigeria has only 3 cities population exceeding 2 million, Lagos, Kano and Ibadan.


Kano - 3 million, Ibadan 2.5 million, Lagos 9 m, Port Harcourt - 1.5m, Calabar 600,000 thousand, Enugu - 670,000 thousand, Abuja - 1.2m etc

As you can see, you are wrong.

Let's not let patriotism cloud our judgment, honestly speaking, there's no way Port Harcourt can be compared to Nairobi development wise. As for Abuja it can though it pales when compared to Nairobi and as I said, it's the only city that won't disappoint you given its population. Now getting to Lagos, it's a city competing with Nairobi instead of Shanghai, Cairo or some other similar sized city. Its skyline, motorways system, retail penetration, corporate presence etc should be several times larger than Nairobi's and not the same size.

Then Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano and Lagos are above 2m ppl with Port Harcourt being very close to that figure. Lagos is too big to compare here so for the other 3,do you see anything Durban like or Abidjan like? So I don't think I was wrong saying your 2m - 3m cities are very disappointing.

It's good admitting realistic things. For instance, Pretoria is about the same size as Mombasa but Pretoria is a whole lot more developed, or Port Louis in Mauritius is half the size of Nakuru but it looks like the bigger city when compared infrastructure wise. The Port Harcourt - Nairobi match-up is just as contrasting

forgiveness:
Of course, we have 3 cities of Nairobi status. Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt.

And we have 4 of Mombasa's status, Calabar, Enugu, Ibadan and Kano even Kaduna. Uyo is coming up fast.

You talking population wise or development wise, coz if it's the former, I do agree. But development wise, I harbor very strong doubts. Not that Port Harcourt, Enugu or Kano aren't developed, it's just that they ain't as much as the cities you've compared them with.

Thing is when you hear of a 2-3m populated city in Nigeria, you expect to see a Durban like or Nairobi like city in terms of roads, skyline, urban planning, sophistication level etc. But save for Abuja, others are very fond of falling worryingly short of your expectations.

highheybee:
Hmmmm...much diversified industry...biggest lie l
Nigeria
Kenya

Like I once said excluding poverty rate and 24/7 electricity,you are still lagging in other sectors
Building the biggest mall doesn't make you better
...as the second largest mall in the world is referred to as a dead mall due to being vacant...you can build but... Things like mall doesn't translate into you being better...build one biggest and someone can build for equivalent to that size....
Your economy is not near as diversified as ours

You guys really don't understand how population plays...you really think it's easy to develop a 21m state compared to 3.5m...are you guys for real...you can't compare any state to Lagos in your country...with a gdp and per capita higher than that of Nairobi as a whole...take for example if the size in meters of land in Nairobi and Lagos is equal...it translates into Nairobi having many Virgin lands...Lagos is so filled up that land had to be reclaimed from the sea to build the eko Atlantic city...we were both given independence in the 60s and Lagos has grown way beyond you...maybe you should compare those cities with their mates regarding population like Abuja which us even more organised and better

And about ports ,those Ports are used by at least four countries so it's reasonable if it's bigger than ours


And please about education,how much are the paying in Nairobi,kenyatta,moi universities...coz mist of our federal universities are paying less than $100,with a state university saying $80

Hmm, a bit of research before denying is usually helpful to both we who are discussing and those just passing through.

I'll begin with diversification

Nigerian export chart
[img] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Nigeria_Export_Treemap_(2011).png/450px-Nigeria_Export_Treemap_(2011).png[/img]
http://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/which-countries-could-be-affected-plunging-oil-prices-data-perspective

Kenyan export chart
[img] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Kenya_Export_Treemap.jpg/qlow-350px-Kenya_Export_Treemap.jpg[/img]
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1885256
You can see from the above the level of diversification of each country's exports. And exports are from surplus production so...

Then to retail. At 30% formalization, kenya has a much more developed retail sector, dominated by Kenyan companies. The more formal a retail sector, the more diversity a consumer is able to get. And if these diverse products are mostly local as is in Kenya, then the more market for its processed goods. That's why the most developed countries have the most formalized retail sectors in the world.