Lagos, the erstwhile capital of Nigeria and currently its commercial hub, used to be identified as one of the dirtiest capital cities in the world. But thanks to the efforts of the Lagos state government in the last decade, the city is looking up. The government wants to make Lagos a mega-city.
However, the way Lagos ranks in other areas is worrisome. It is regarded as the 13th most expensive city in the world. So says Mercer, the world’s largest human resource consulting firm.
The consulting firm also says in its 23rd Cost of Living Survey that African, Asian, and European cities dominated the 2017 list of most expensive locations for working abroad. According to the survey, Abuja, Nigeria’s current federal capital, ranked 20th in 2016.
The capital city of Angola, Luanda, however, ranked first globally, moving up from second place and taking over from Hong Kong as the world’s most expensive city. The survey attributed cost of goods and security as factors that determined the cost of living in Luanda.
Other African capital cities that ranked high reflected high living costs and prices of goods for expatriate employees. They include Victoria, Seychelles in the 14th position, N’djamena, Chad in the 16th position and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo ranked 18th.
The least expensive African cities include Gaborone, Botswana in the 196th position; Cape Town, South Africa ranking 199th and Blantyre, Malawi ranking 205th. Windhoek, Namibia ranked 206 while Tunis, Tunisia ranked 209 and was found to be the least expensive country globally.
In Europe, three cities remained in the top 10 list of most expensive cities for expatriates, which included Zurich, Geneva and Bern which ranked fourth, seventh and 10th respectively.
Moscow ranked 14th and London ranked 30th position and the German cities of Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin dropped significantly ranking 98, 117 and 120 respectively.
Also, five of the top 10 expensive cities in the ranking were in Asia; Hong Kong ranked second and was found to be the most expensive city in the region as a result of its currency pegged to the US dollar, which drove up the cost of accommodation locally. Others are Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai which ranked third, fifth, sixth and eighth respectively.
