‘Tackle urban poverty’

from The Herald

LAGOS. — Nigeria needs to take steps to tackle growing urban poverty in the country, a senior UN official has said.

Anna Kajumulo, UN under-secretary general and executive director of the UN Habitat was quoted by local media yesterday as saying that Nigeria had 46 million slum dwellers in 2005, by far the highest number in Africa.

"If drastic measures are not taken to tackle the scourge of urban poverty in Nigeria," she said, "it is projected that the number of slum dwellers will reach 55 million in 2010, 66 million in 2015 and 76 million in 2020." The main development challenge for Africa, especially Nigeria, over the next two decades was to manage urbanisation successfully, she said.

As the world entered the new urban age, there was proof that within just one generation, 50 percent of Africans will be living in cities, the UN agency chief added.