Ecological Footprint Analysis and Sustainable Consumption Governance in Urban Nigeria: A Multi-City Assessment

The ecological footprint of urban consumption in Nigerian cities has expanded substantially with economic growth and changing consumption patterns, yet systematic measurement and governance frameworks for managing urban ecological footprints remain absent from Nigerian urban policy discourse. This doctoral research applies ecological footprint methodology to analyse consumption-based environmental demands across five Nigerian cities representing different geopolitical zones, income levels, and urban morphologies, developing a multi-city comparative ecological footprint analysis and a governance framework for sustainable consumption. Per capita ecological footprints are computed for Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna using a hybrid approach combining input-output analysis with household expenditure survey data from the 2022 National Bureau of Statistics General Household Survey, translated to biophysical equivalents through appropriate global average factors adjusted for Nigerian sectoral productivity data. Footprint components are disaggregated by consumption category, household income quintile, and urban density zone. The governance framework development employs co-production methodology through workshops with urban planners, environmental regulatory officials, civil society representatives, and household groups in each study city. The study makes an original methodological contribution by developing the first nationally calibrated ecological footprint conversion factors for key Nigerian consumption categories including food, energy, and transport, addressing the global average factor problem documented in footprint literature for African contexts. Empirical findings reveal significant inter-city footprint variation correlated with income, informal sector share, and energy access, providing a typological basis for city-specific sustainable consumption governance recommendations. Keywords: ecological footprint, sustainable consumption, urban governance, Nigerian cities, consumption-based accounting.