COLUMN: Africa’s urban moment is an opportunity, not a crisis

Ahead of World Cities Day on 31 October, experts argue that Africa's urban growth offers a chance to build stronger economies, better infrastructure, and more inclusive cities. The continent's urban population is projected to roughly double from about 700 million to 1.4 billion people by 2050. This growth presents opportunities for innovation and economic development, but also poses challenges such as informal settlements, congestion, and failing services. However, focusing solely on these challenges risks overlooking the remarkable opportunities unfolding across the continent.

African cities are becoming hubs of innovation and engines of economic growth, with solutions that could shape the future of urban development globally. Increasingly, cities are being recognised for their potential rather than defined by unmet needs. The second Africa Urban Forum held in 2026 saw governments sign the Nairobi Declaration, recognising urbanisation as a catalyst of structural transformation rather than a problem to be contained. This shift in perspective encourages planning for growth rather than reacting to crisis.

Most of the urban Africa of 2050 has not yet been built, offering an opportunity for new and better infrastructure. The roads, houses, transit lines, water networks, and power grids that will serve hundreds of millions of people are still on the drawing board. Africa's secondary cities face a more hopeful task, as many are still small enough to plan well from the outset, rather than patch up badly designed systems later. These growing cities can skip outdated, carbon-heavy models and build systems that are smart, efficient, and climate-resilient from the start.

Lagos, Nigeria, shows how investment can respond to growing demand. The city opened its first intra-city rail system, the Blue Line, in 2023, which has seen strong uptake with about 3.5 million passengers in 2025. By concentrating talent, markets, infrastructure, finance, manufacturing, and trade, cities accelerate productivity and innovation, supporting household, local, national, and regional economies. Urban areas already account for the bulk of Africa's economic output, and their contribution continues to expand.

The Economist Intelligence Unit projects that Africa's leading cities will generate more than 60% of its GDP by the mid-2030s. In Kenya, Nairobi City contributed 27.5 per cent of national Gross Value Added in 2024. In South Africa, Gauteng, home to Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni, generated 33.2 per cent of national GDP in 2024. Small businesses are also turning this concentration of people, skills, and markets into household income, such as Suame Magazine in Kumasi, recognised as the largest single cluster informal industrial setting in West Africa.

Africa is urbanising alongside rapid technological change, allowing cities to draw on mobile phones, digital payments, renewable energy, and artificial intelligence to leapfrog development paths that were once slow and costly. The people who make this possible are young, with Africa having the world's youngest population, with a median age of 19.3 years. This may be the continent's greatest urban advantage, as young people move into cities and working age, Africa has an opportunity to earn a demographic dividend.

To realise this potential, cities must plan better, using urban data platforms, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and smart meters to see where needs are greatest, anticipate risks, and track how assets perform. The investment opportunity is equally large, with Africa's infrastructure needs running to as much as 170 billion dollars a year, much of it in cities. However, traditional funding is shrinking, and cities must develop lasting capacity to turn priorities into clearly defined, evidence-based projects with realistic routes to funding.

Key points

• Africa's urban growth offers a chance to build stronger economies, better infrastructure, and more inclusive cities.
• The continent's urban population is projected to roughly double from about 700 million to 1.4 billion people by 2050.
• Cities must plan better and develop lasting capacity to turn priorities into clearly defined, evidence-based projects with realistic routes to funding.