Africa is the world’s least urbanized continent, and yet the rate at which its cities are expanding is growing faster than no other worldwide – at an average of 3.5 percent per year. This growth of urbanization does, however, vary across the continent, ranging from the already heavily urbanized North Africa (47.8 percent) to the least urbanized Sub-Saharan Africa (32.8 percent).The aggregate rate of urbanization on the continent is projected to grow from 40 percent in 2015 to 56 percent in 2050.
The enormous speed at which Africa’s cities are growing is linked to other key development trends, most prominently accelerating economic and population growth, increasing migration from rural to urban areas, and the youth bulge. It is strongly driven by Africans’ perceptions that cities – in contrast to the continent’s rural areas – offer an abundance of livelihood opportunities, including employment and income-generating opportunities, food security, and access to finance, education and social capital as well as social protection.
March 4, 2020
Addressing the Challenges of Urbanization in Africa
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Gross Domestic Product Growth Rate: Growth in the sector which stalled in the second and third quarters of 2015 witnessed a considerable decline in 2015Q4; the stall in growth in 2015 is attributable
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 41)
The
naira continued its downward trajectory in the review week. Specifically, naira
depreciated significantly at the parallel segment by 3.5 percent to a record
low of N440/$ on September 23, 2016. Notably, this was driven by
the worsening liquidity constraints at the interbank market which left the
excess forex demand to be sourced at the parallel market, and thus exerted
downward pressure on the naira. The naira is likely to further
weaken given that most of the liquidity constraints are exogenously determined
and thus forex supply will likely remain subdued by its demand.