By Abbas Nazil
Kano’s population has grown by more than six million people since the 2006 census, intensifying pressure on land, waste management, sanitation, transportation and other urban systems as residents and traders warn that overcrowding is changing the environmental character of the state.
The National Bureau of Statistics put Kano State’s population at 9,401,288 in 2006 and 13,076,892 in 2016, representing an increase of about 39 per cent in a decade.
The latest NBS demographic estimate for 2023 puts the state’s population at 15,671,491, meaning Kano’s population was about 67 per cent higher than the 2006 census figure.
Kano State remains Nigeria’s most populous state, according to the state government, and the rapid growth has raised questions about whether infrastructure and environmental management systems are expanding at the same pace as the population.
Speaking with a NatureNews reporter during a field trip through Kano, traders and residents interviewed at Kwari Cloth Market, Singa Market, Batta and Janguza complained about congestion, waste accumulation, increasing vehicular activity and the loss of open spaces.
Abdullahi Musa, a trader at Kwari Cloth Market, said the growing number of people and businesses had increased pressure on the environment.
“Population growth has changed the environment significantly. When many people live and conduct their activities in one place, there will be more vehicles, more waste, more buildings and more pressure on the environment,” Musa told NatureNews.
At Singa Market, Aisha Sani, a trader, said the concentration of traders, customers, vehicles and commercial activities had made the market increasingly congested.
“There is more congestion, more waste and less open space,” Sani told NatureNews.
Ibrahim Ahmad, who spoke with NatureNews in Batta, said population growth was putting additional pressure on available land and environmental resources.
He called for stronger urban planning capable of accommodating population growth without further degrading the environment.
At Janguza, Kabiru Yusuf, a trader, also linked the increase in human activities with growing environmental pressure.
“The more people we have, the more activities we have. There are more houses, more vehicles, more businesses and more waste,” Yusuf told NatureNews.
Hauwa Ibrahim, another trader at Kwari Cloth Market, called for greater investment in waste management and urban greenery, saying trees and green spaces were becoming increasingly important in densely populated areas.
Usman Bello, who spoke with NatureNews at Singa Market, however, stressed that population growth should not be interpreted as a direct cause of climate change.
“People need houses, transportation, energy and other things. If these activities are not properly managed, they can affect the environment,” Bello said.
That distinction is important because population growth does not automatically cause climate change.
Rather, rapid population growth and urbanisation can increase demand for energy, transportation, housing, water and consumer goods, while poor waste management, vegetation loss and inefficient urban planning can increase environmental pressures and greenhouse-gas emissions.
Kano’s waste burden illustrates the scale of the challenge.
A 2024 study of Kano Metropolis estimated that about 330 tonnes of solid waste were generated every day, equivalent to approximately 120,450 tonnes annually.
The study found that only about 20.5 tonnes of the daily waste generated were properly managed, highlighting a substantial gap between waste generation and effective management.
Another study estimated daily solid-waste generation in Kano Metropolis at about 590.6 tonnes, illustrating the uncertainty surrounding waste estimates and the need for government to publish an independently verifiable, current state-wide waste inventory.
The sanitation situation also presents a complicated picture.
A 2023 WASH assessment reported that only 25 per cent of Kano’s 44 local government areas had been verified as open-defecation-free.
However, a 2024 report citing Rahama Rihood Mohammed Farah, Chief of UNICEF’s Field Office in Kano, said only two per cent of Kano residents still practised open defecation.
More recently, Kano authorities reported that 26 of the state’s 44 local government areas had achieved open-defecation-free certification.
The differing figures raise an important question for further investigation: whether progress is being measured by population, communities or certified local government areas, and how many people still lack access to safely managed sanitation.
The population pressure has also been acknowledged by Kano government officials.
In November 2024, the state Commissioner for Planning and Budget, Musa Suleiman Shanono, said Kano had a population of more than 15 million people and noted the challenge of financing services for such a large population.
Yet Kano is also taking steps to respond to its environmental and climate challenges.
The state government has developed a Climate Change Policy and a Climate Change Policy Implementation Action Plan covering 2024–2030.
The plan targets a 30 per cent reduction in state-wide greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030 and seeks to improve climate resilience for more than two million residents while creating green jobs in areas including renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and environmental management.
The government has also embarked on large-scale tree planting.
The state Ministry of Environment and Climate Change says its five-million-tree campaign was completed in 2025 and that attention has shifted to a 10-million-tree drive in 2026.
The ministry also says it is working toward planting 20 million trees across Kano’s 44 local government areas by 2030.
Through the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes project, Kano is also pursuing land restoration and climate-resilience interventions, including erosion control and drainage projects.
ACReSAL lists work around the Jakara Stream in Kano Metropolis among its interventions aimed at improving environmental resilience.
Kano’s climate governance has also improved significantly in recent assessments.
The state reportedly moved from 35th position among Nigerian states in a 2024 climate-governance ranking to fourth position in 2025, a development attributed to stronger climate institutions and policy action.
However, the contrast between policy commitments and conditions on the ground remains an issue requiring closer scrutiny.
During the NatureNews reporter’s journey from Kogi State through Abuja and Kano to Jigawa State, parts of Jigawa appeared comparatively less congested and calmer than the densely populated commercial areas encountered in Kano.
The observation does not establish that Jigawa’s lower population directly causes cooler temperatures, because local climate is also shaped by vegetation, land cover, rainfall, humidity, wind patterns and geography.
But the contrast raises a broader question about how population density, urban expansion and environmental management interact across neighbouring states.
For Kano, the central challenge may therefore not simply be how to accommodate more people, but how to ensure that population growth does not outpace the state’s capacity to manage waste, sanitation, transport, housing, vegetation and other environmental pressures.
The evidence points to a state caught between two realities: a rapidly growing population placing increasing demands on urban systems, and a government introducing climate policies, tree-planting programmes, waste reforms and resilience projects to respond to those pressures.
The effectiveness of those interventions, however, will ultimately depend on whether they can match the scale and speed of Kano’s demographic growth.