Lagos is Africa’s 4th most expensive city—Mercer

Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria has emerged the 4^th most expensive city on the African Continent.

This was the revelation of Mercer’s 2019 Cost of Living Survey, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & Mclennan Companies, the leading global professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people.

The survey made available to OpenLife by African Media Agency, AMA, shows that Lagos, continues to remain attractive for foreign investments despite being one of the most expensive in Africa.

Mercer’s 25th annual Cost of Living Survey finds that a number of factors, including currency fluctuations, cost of inflation for goods and services, and volatility in accommodation prices, contribute to the overall cost of expatriate packages for employees on international assignments.

At the global scale, Lagos is the 25th most expensive city in the world. Having moved up 17 places from last year’s ranking.

 Nigeria’s commercial hub is one of Mercer’s top 5 costliest cities in Africa. Kinshasa, Dem. Rep. of Congo (22) is in second place, rising fifteen places. Libreville, Gabon (24) is the next African city on the list, followed by Lagos, Nigeria (25). Despite dropping about 20 places, Luanda, Angola (26) still remains in fifth place. 

“Each African country has its own unique economy and this is why multinationals need not approach their expatriate packages for Africa with one single strategy. Let’s look at it this way, while a city like N’Djamena in Chad has been listed as the 11th most expensive city in the world, whereas Mali comes in at the 124th position in terms of cost of living,” said Yolanda Sedlmaier, Principal Leader – Africa Mobility at Mercer.