WITH two-thirds
of Africans expected to live in cities by 2050, how Africa urbanises will
be critical to the continent’s future growth and development, according
to the African Economic Outlook 2016 released yesterday at the African
Development Bank Group’s 51st Annual Meetings.
Africa’s economic performance held firm in 2015 amid global headwinds and
regional shocks. The continent remained the second fastest growing economic
region after East Asia. According to the report’s prudent forecast, the continent’s
average growth is expected at 3.7% in 2016 and pick up to 4.5% in 2017, provided
the world economy strengthens and commodity prices gradually recover.
In 2015, net financial flows to Africa were estimated at USD 208 billion,
1.8% lower than in 2014 due to a contraction in investment. At USD 56 billion
in 2015, however, official development assistance increased by 4%; and remittances
remain the most stable and important single source of external finance at
USD 64 billion in 2015.
“African countries, which include top worldwide growth champions, have shown
remarkable resilience in the face of global economic adversity. Turning Africa’s
steady resilience into better lives for Africans requires strong policy action
to promote faster and more inclusive growth,” stated Abebe Shimeles, Acting
Director, Development Research Department, at the African Development Bank.
The continent is urbanising at a historically rapid pace coupled with an
unprecedented demographic boom: the population living in cities has doubled
from 1995 to 472 million in 2015. This phenomenon is unlike what other regions,
such as Asia, experienced and is currently accompanied by slow structural
transformation, says the report’s special thematic chapter.
According to the authors, lack of urban planning leads to costly urban sprawl.
In Accra, Ghana, for example, the population nearly doubled between 1991
and 2000, increasing from 1.3 million to 2.5 million inhabitants at an average
annual growth rate of 7.2%. During the same period, the built up area of
Accra tripled, increasing from 10 thousand hectares to 32 thousand hectares
by an average annual rate of 12.8%.
Urbanisation is a megatrend transforming African societies profoundly. Two-thirds
of the investments in urban infrastructure until 2050 have yet to be made.
The scope is large for new, wide-ranging urban policies to turn African cities
and towns into engines of growth and sustainable development for the continent
as a whole.
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