**7. Conclusion**

The study demonstrates that managing urbanization in Northern Nigeria's largest city, Kano, like most rapidly growing urban centers in Nigeria, has undoubtedly become one of the most important contemporary problems facing the city in recent years, owing to the inability of relevant government authorities at the federal, state, and local government levels to manage the city's spatial growth and expansion effectively. The findings of this study identify the historical, commercial, industrial, *Understanding the Challenges of 21st Century Urbanization in Northern Nigeria's Largest City… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109400*

and socio-economic developments in Kano that serve as a potential driver of the rapid urban growth in the city, which leads to undesirable consequences in the city. Therefore, this study aimed to comprehensively understand the dynamics of urban growth in Kano by examining the city's historical urban development and critically examining the contemporary problems confronting the city due to its demographical and spatial growth. This is discussed in the current findings, which revealed the decay in infrastructures due to urban sprawl, the problem of transportation and high traffic congestion, environmental pollution as well as unemployment and increased crime rates as the most prominent problems facing Kano, Nigeria's second-largest industrial city and the largest city in Northern Nigeria. The study provided a comprehensive, broader, and more in-depth perspective toward understanding these contemporary problems and recommends that it is imperative for all three tiers of Nigeria's government to actively involve the collaboration of the private sector through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and take responsibility aimed at tackling the identified problems through the implementation of planned sectoral reforms, strategies, and frameworks. This will go a long way in curbing the contemporary urban problems facing Kano city and achieving sustainable urban growth of the city.
