Africa’s urban boom: Can development keep up?

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Urbanisation – the growing concentration of people in settlements with better infrastructure, economic opportunities and access to healthcare and education – is an inevitable part of modern development.

The number of people living in urban areas, including cities, is substantially on the rise, and this trend is expected to continue through to 2050. Africa and Asia are experiencing an increase in the proportion of people living in cities.

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), there are 33 megacities (10 million inhabitants or more) in the world, with 19 in Asia.

Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania are expected to join the list of megacities in the next few years.

Jakarta in Indonesia was the world’s most populous city in 2025, with nearly 42 million inhabitants. Dhaka in Bangladesh followed with almost 37 million, while Tokyo in Japan had 33 million. Cairo in Egypt was the only city outside Asia among the world’s 10 most populous cities.

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Despite the global shift towards urban living, towns – which connect rural and urban areas – remain the most common type of settlement in 71 countries.

India and China host more than 1.2 billion town dwellers, representing over 40% of the global population of towns.

Despite mounting pressures, including ageing populations and out-migration, rural areas continue to play an important role in society.

According to UN DESA, sub-Saharan Africa is the only region that has experienced substantial growth in the size of its rural population over recent decades. Nearly all future growth of the world’s rural population is said take place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Urbanisation comes with its own pressures, including unaffordable housing, expansion of slums, inadequate basic services, and high rates of unemployment and crime.

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In Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa, urban geography still informs access to opportunity with some sectors of the population living 20km or more away from economic activity.

This population lives in crowded townships that remain structurally disconnected from labour markets.

In this episode of The Business of Africa Podcast, we focus on Goal 11 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which speaks to making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

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Oyebanke Abejirin is economic affairs officer in the sustainable development and integrated planning section macroeconomics and finance division at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

She joins us to review the progress of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Oyebanke Abejirin. Image: Supplied

According to the 2026 Africa Sustainable Development Report, deep-seated structural constraints including, low productivity, limited structural transformation, high informality and constrained fiscal space add to the complexity of achieving sustainable development of African cities in the next four years.

Africa is urbanising faster than any other region and structural transformation at scale will be needed to afford citizens a quality of life.

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