Nigeria is planning a record budget to help Africa's biggest economy to weather low oil prices and diversify the economy, but experts warn that exploding population growth will overwhelm any new infrastructure just as soon as it is built.
President Muhammadu Buhari plans a record $30 billion budget for this year to build roads, railway lines and improve erratic power supply in Africa's most populous nation.
The former military ruler got elected last year on a promise to drag millions of Nigerians out of poverty and stop state income from enriching a hyper-rich elite.
Buhari plans to spend $9 billion on capital expenditures, three times more than in 2015. But with the population growing annually by 3.2 percent -- the highest rate in Africa -- any plans for new roads gets immediately outdated.
That can be seen in the mega-city Lagos, home to 23 million, which adds every day several thousands of residents, babies or people from other parts of the vast country seeking work.
Most newcomers end up in slum like districts on the mainland, where makeshift houses stretch for kilometers on narrow dirt tracks.
Public transport, schools and hospitals are unable to serve all residents, a picture similar in most cities.
In Lagos alone authorities needed to spend $50 billion in the next five years on infrastructure, said Ashade Jeremiah, state commissioner for budget and planning.
"Our budget I think this year is roughly about over three billion dollars, so you can see that we need more collaboration. We need to really explore more the public private partnership. We also need to increase our revenue base, bring more people to the tax net so we can even have more funds, but more importantly is that aspect of the public private partnership that we are really looking towards exploring and ensuring that we get more investment in those directions," said Jeremiah.
The population will hit 300 million by 2030. According to the United Nations, the West African nation will be the third most populous nation hosting 400 million people.
To cope, Nigeria would need to double the number of schools, hospitals or roads, according to the U.N. Population Fund.
That is an illusion given dwindling oil revenues, which make up 70 percent of state income. Transport, for example, Buhari's budget will only fund three rail lines, four airports and 31 roads, some of which have been in the works for years.
Analysts say Nigeria's economy would need to grow at double-digit rates for years to provide jobs.
For 2015, the International Monetary Fund expects the economy to slow to 2.3 percent after 2.8 percent last year.
Osaretin Adonri, an assistant representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Nigeria says the unemployed are an easy prey for Boko Haram which has been recruiting disgruntled youth for its insurgency to set up an Islamic state in the north.
"We have a pool of young persons that are probably not very educated, and those who are educated do not have jobs to do, and so they become a ready army for the kind of insurgencies and disturbances we are seeing in parts of the country."
The population growth's repercussions go beyond Nigeria -- as many poor head for Europe by travelling overland to Libya from where smugglers ship them to Italy.
The European Union saw the number of Nigerian asylum seekers tripling last year. Most say they flee Boko Haram but officials say many are economic migrants.
Population growth is a "buzz word" in research notes of global banks describing Nigeria's potential as a huge market for anything from fizzy drinks, TV sets to cars.
But for most Nigerians, life is just about surviving -- 70 percent of the people live on 1 dollar a day or less, Adonri said.
The economic crisis is now also luring job seekers fleeing northern and central Nigeria, where state governments have been unable to pay salaries.
Further pressure from Boko Haram is driving people to the south despite some successes by the army in retaking land.
Many displaced people head to Lagos to find work after having stayed for years in camps.
While complaining about suffering, many here still want to have a big family.
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