Cities of Africa: Explosive Growth, Corresponding Challenges

The number of people living in urban areas in countries of sub-Saharan Africa has more than quintupled in the last 50 years, and is projected to double again in the next 25 years. Thus, a key question for human welfare is whether these new African cities are engines of properity, or poverty traps. A World Bank report, Sub-Saharan Africa’s Urban Awakening: Catalyzing Economic Growth and Job Creation, edited by Mark Roberts and Emily M. Owen, lays out the issues. Although the effects on people living in Africa are the top challenge, it’s worth remembering that the pressures for mass emigration from Africa to Europe and the rest of the world will be heavily shaped by Africa’s cities. The report notes: Between 1975 and 2025, SSA’s [sub-Saharan Africa’s] urban population increased by a factor of almost 5.4, from 170.2 to 912.6 million, and the number of people in cities grew from 64.0 to 502.9 million. Although population growth rates have slowed, they remain high at around 3.0 percent per…

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