Ben Eguzozie
Development analysts in recent notes about Port Harcourt, ascribe that the city, with a population of 3.79 million (2025) is “overrated as a megacity”.
According to these analysts, there appears
yet “no significant business district with skyscrapers” —like Lagos’s Marina, Broad Street, Kakawa, among others, with eye-catching high-rise buildings.
“People can’t walk into the city (Port Harcourt) and get instant jobs. The low rusty roofs (around Diobu, the Ikwerre Road stretching 20-km from Mile 1 to Rumuokoro) indicate low profile,” wrote one megacity development analyst.
Series of checks by Business A.M. indicate the direction of the analysts. For instance, according to key indicators of megacities by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) show that, for a city to qualify as a megacity, it must have a high population density — concentration of human population in reference to space —from 10 million and above. Here Port Harcourt gravely falls short—less than 5 million people (only 3.79 million).
Another megacity key element by FIG standard, is extensive transport system. Here, Port Harcourt does not measure in any way—with absolutely no multimodal transport (rail, water, road, air).
Though the oil city has vast waterways with seaports, no effective water transport connects these facilities. The speedboats plying the waterways are rickety, uncensored outboard boat engines operated by typically private people —with none ever equipped with safety gadgets.
According to the UN Habitat on key features of a megacity, megacities are at the top of the hierarchy because of the population size (at least 10 million people), land area, variety of functions and their small number. However, other types of city may also appear at the top: metacity / hypercity / megalopolis – a city of at least 20 million people (UN Habitat, 2006).
Also, Wikipedia said Port Harcourt is “not currently classified as a megacity. While it is a large and important city in Nigeria, with a metro area population of 3,794,000 in 2025, the term megacity typically refers to urban areas with populations exceeding 10 million. Cities like Lagos, Nigeria, fit this definition. Megacities are defined as urban agglomerations with a population of 10 million or more. Lagos is the only city in Nigeria currently classified as a megacity, and it is considered a medium-port megacity due to its large population and port traffic”.
Onungwe Emmanuel Obe, a Port Harcourt-based development journalist wrote: “Sometimes I wonder why Port Harcourt, an oil city is having such a low outlook compared to other oil cities across the globe (Jamnagar and Mumbai in India, Ulsan in South Korea, Port Arthur in Texas, USA, among others). The reality is that the people (of Port Harcourt) are averse to development. They love their oppressors more than the real developers. If not skyscrapers will be dotting the city and beyond”.
For Kolwaole Talabi, an environmentalist with Fair Planet, although Port Harcourt is home to two of Nigeria’s petroleum refineries, boasting some of the biggest petrochemical industries in the country (Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals), being one of Nigeria’s largest industrial centres, the Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout (an attempt to attract light and heavy industries into the city), but years of poor economic planning made the enterprise an
almost futile exercise.
“In lieu of manufacturing, the city (Port Harcourt) has over the last six decades attracted oil merchants and petroleum prospectors. The tiny settlement that was named after a British colonial administrator in 1912 has since grown into Africa’s energy hub, with almost a daily output of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. This showy statistics often overshadows a shameful one—almost 8 billion cubic meters of gas is flared annually according to satellite data, making Nigeria the seventh-largest gas flarer in the world the World Bank says. The ceaseless combustion of fossils pumps billions of C02
into the atmosphere. In Port Harcourt, the immanence of soot is enough proof that something about the atmosphere isn’t quite right,” Talabi wrote in an article, “Port Harcourt: What Happened to the Garden City?”
Obe said further: “There are no jobs in Port Harcourt. Very overhyped city. Port Harcourt didn’t grow beyond its bothers. The only high rise building we show to the world is the State Secretariat Point Block and Podium Block, the newly built Stock Exchange building, and the uncompleted Rainbow Town Estate at Trans Amadi. We are being sustained by past glory”.
On gross domestic product classification, there is no available data indicating Port Harcourt’s GDP, unlike Lagos which is considered as the fifth largest in Africa, with a GDP of $259 billion.
Port Harcourt is only listed as the capital of Rivers State, its major city and economic hub, contributing significantly to Nigeria’s overall GDP, with the state ranked second in the country, with GDP estimated at $51.529 billion.
