To grow their economies in line with their growing size, Africa’s cities must open their doors and connect to the world to ensure that investments in these cities’ infrastructure, industrial and commercial structures keep pace with its concentration of people.

A new World Bank report, released on Thursday, explained that because of this lack of connection, African cities are among the costliest in the world, both for businesses and for households, leaving cities “out of service and closed for business”.

The report, titled ‘Africa’s Cities: Opening Doors to the World’, further highlighted that African cities were 29% more expensive than cities in countries of similar income levels.

“African households face higher costs relative to their per capita gross domestic product than do households in other regions – much of it accounted for by housing, which costs them a full 55% more than in other regions,” the report stated, noting that, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for example, 28% of residents live at least three to a room; in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 50% do so; and in Lagos, Nigeria, two out of three people live in slums.

High rates of slum living within urban areas are characteristic of most African countries. Only two countries, Zimbabwe and South Africa, fall below the non-African average.

Adding to this, city dwellers pay around 35% more for food in Africa than in low-income and middle-income countries elsewhere. Overall, urban households in African countries pay 20% to 31% more for goods and services than in other developing countries at similar income levels.

“What Africa needs are more affordable, connected and livable cities. Improving the economic and social dividends from urbanisation will be critical as better developed cities could transform Africa’s economies,” World Bank Africa VP Makhtar Diop said.

CONSOLIDATION NEEDED

These challenges create great opportunity, with significant potential for coordinated investments in infrastructure, residential and commercial structures, which will enhance "agglomeration economies" and connect people with jobs.

The report highlights that the key to freeing Africa’s cities from the low-development trap is to set them on a path toward physical and economic density, connecting them for higher efficiency and boosting expectations for the future.

“The first priority is to formalise land markets, clarify property rights and institute effective urban planning that allows land to be brought together. The second priority is to make early and coordinated infrastructure investments that allow for interlinkages among housing, infrastructure, commercial and industrial development,” the report stated.

However, it noted that attracting investments would be no easy feat, as the need for higher wages to pay higher living costs made businesses less productive and competitive, keeping them out of tradable sectors. “As a result, African cities are avoided by potential regional and global investors and trading partners,” it stated.

World Bank social, urban, rural and resilience global senior director Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez stressed that what cities did now would determine their shape and efficiency, not just for years to come, but for decades or even centuries.

“From a policy standpoint, the answer is to address the structural problems affecting African cities. Africa needs to strengthen institutions that govern land markets, and coordinate urban and infrastructure planning. Fragmented physical development – cities in Africa are 20% more fragmented than Asian and Latin American ones – is limiting productivity and livability.”

SOUTH AFRICAN SPOTLIGHT
The report also highlighted the strengths of and challenges facing South African cities, with a particular focus on Durban.

One such challenge was unclear land rights, which as with the rest of the continent, was “severely constraining urban land redevelopment”, imposing high costs. Under the customary rules for land tenure that control much urban and peri-urban land, property rights depend on the consent of local chiefs or family elders, as it is the case in Durban.

“These cities often struggle with overlapping and conflicting tenure systems – formal, customary and informal. Even where formal titles or clear land rights exist, basic mapping, geographic or ownership information is often inaccurate or land records maintained poorly, causing disputes. Applying for formal recognition can also be tedious and costly,” the report stated.

However, it stated that future urban redevelopers in Africa could learn from the past successes of two approaches – land sharing and land readjustment – which had been carried out in several Asian cities.

Meanwhile, the report highlighted Durban’s access to amenities as one of its strengths.

More than two-thirds of households in the coastal city have access to piped water, against only 14% to 17% in Dar es Salaam. Within-city variations in access are, however, wide.

Almost 87% of households in the urban core have piped water in their dwelling, but less than 20% on the outskirts of the city and less than 15% in shanty areas, do.

Durban is also far ahead of Dar es Salaam on sanitation. Variations in access are wide, however: almost 92% of households in the urban core are connected to the sewerage system, but only 19% in the outskirts of the city and 45% in shanty areas are.

In shanty areas, which in Durban are not very far from the city’s core, 44% of households still rely on pit latrines as their main form of sanitation, against 15% in peri-urban formal areas and 76% in rural areas on the outskirts of the city.

Lastly, the report noted that Durban was less fragmented than other African cities. It stated that, in Dar es Salaam, households travel only small distances to get to work, with household heads’ average commuting distance being less than 6 km. “This indicates that Dar es Salaam – although a city of more than 5-million people – functions as a set of villages with extremely local labour markets.”

However, in Durban, most people travel 30 minutes to 40 minutes from home to work, with commuting modes also being more diverse than in Dar es Salaam. A third of Durban’s population uses minibuses as the main mode of transportation, and almost 30% use private vehicles. A still considerable 21% walk to work.