Lagos is one of the worldls largest megacities, and it is growing faster than any other.

It will soon be home to a projected 23 million people, placing Lagos squarely behind Tokyo and Mumbai.

Lagos is a city of contrasts. While it is flush with oil wealth that has accumulated since the 1970s, many Lagosians live on less than $2 a day in the 42 slums that dot the city. A Mercer Cost of Living survey suggests Lagos is more expensive than Barcelona and Los Angeles. However, an estimated 60% of economic activity is informal.

In the New Yorker, George Packer wrote: "begging is rare. ... In Lagos, everyone is a striver."

According to a 2002 UN report, lack of employment opportunities and pervasive poverty have led to the rise of gangs of street youth called Area Boys, whose "coercive and persuasive requests, petty crimes and sometimes-violent offences.... have disturbed the civil society and defied the civic authority."

A study by the Nigerian branch of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime blamed their emergence on the "complex dynamics of socio-economic deprivation" that confronts young people in cities.

With an energetic, reform-minded governor like Babatunde Fashola, many believe that life in Lagos will get better. In the meantime, the UN Information Center reported that Lagos's youth make up 40% of the unemployed.