[2] Somolu is plagued by problems of poor sanitation, high rent, overall poverty, and youth criminal subculture.

[10] Now, Somolu is almost exclusively a printing town, and is constantly filled with noise from various machines, like power generators used to run printers.

[10] As with greater Lagos, Somolu has both suffered and benefited from rapid industrialisation and urbanisation; its benefits include the increase in capital and industry in the area, the sufferings include an overly dense population, poor infrastructure, tenuous employment and unemployment, poverty and poor health.

[3] Touts identify each other using specific nicknames and communicate with each other with a constructed slang that usually presents itself as mixes of Yoruba and Nigerian or intoned Yoruban.

[citation needed] Nigeria has a very prevalent religious scepticism towards orthodox medicine, which leads rely to lean on prayer and the advice of their clerics when confronted with medical issues.

Somolu only has eight maternity wards, and this, alongside its very patriarchal societal institutions, has created a significant and ongoing problem with stillbirths in the area.

Of all the Lagos LGAs with coastlines, Somolu has 90% of its total area built up, the largest proportion, compared to the average of above 50%.

[3] Somolu additionally has architectural structures and development patterns that enable criminal activity, alongside the socio-economic conditions for the significant presence of crime.

[7] Abdul Hamed Salawu, the executive chairman of the Somolu Local Government, has taken a "tough on crime" approach to policing since taking office, decrying a number of times the violence of gangs and "cultist" groups, whilst promising to ensure that Somolu is free from crime in future.

[citation needed] This has led to a significant rise in rent costs in the area, keeping it insular, albeit very dense, despite this very strong printing market.

Oodua Trust has claimed that it has yet to be recognised as the largest employer of labour in Lagos outside of the state government, backed by Somolu having one of the largest, most dense populations of all the Lagos local government areas, albeit one whose population size and density can be misjudged due to the processes of official census’.

[10] It is commonly believed that Somolu remains the last bastion of forgers from the now-demolished Oluwole Market, which was notorious for being the main hub of forgery in Lagos, which facilitated extensive and diverse work in counterfeiting and fraud.

[21] Some anonymous sources have attested to this, claiming that forgers arrive very early in the morning, usually around 1-3am, to print birth certificates, passports, foreign currency and other various documents.

[22] A small community of chicken traders can also be found in the north of Somolu, mainly situated off Onipanu Junction.