Africa’s Urban Paradox: Growth Without Inclusion

Jesse Amoah | Africa Fellow

Image sourced from Emma Eriksson via Unsplash.

Africa is urbanising faster than any other region on earth. This growth carries enormous promise but also big risks, as more than 54 per cent of the urban population lacks secure tenure, affordable housing or reliable basic services. Unless governments confront how land is owned, serviced and governed, rapid expansion will only deepen inequality and entrench informality.

The problem is not how fast African cities grow, but the foundations on which that growth rests. To turn a demographic boom into a dividend, planners must manage cities as systems, not showpieces. Doing so requires reforming how land is owned and securing reliable funding sources for urban services. Treating land as a platform for citizenship rather than a tradable commodity is where the continent’s urban dividend begins.

Expansion as Usual is Failing 

Africa is amid an urban boom reshaping the continent’s future. The share of Africans living in cities has surged since 2000, and the urban population is on track to roughly double to 1.4 billion by 2050. Cities are absorbing most of this growth, driven by rapid population increase, a huge youth bulge, and climate-stressed rural economies. Urban land is expanding at a pace that outstrips population growth, stretching the capacity of housing, infrastructure, and governance. This makes the way land is planned, serviced, and regulated decisive in shaping whether urbanisation becomes a pathway to opportunity or a driver of exclusion. 

Across many African cities, land markets have shifted from foundations of shared prosperity to engines of exclusion. Weak land administration, speculative investment and a shortage of secure, affordable housing have pushed low-income residents into informal settlements beyond the reach of planning and infrastructure. In Lagos, for example, repeated evictions linked to speculative projects have displaced families from jobs and schools, fractured social networks, and left 30,000 families homeless while heightening flood risk. Treating land as a speculative asset rather than a platform for urban citizenship is a policy failure with escalating social and environmental costs.

These failures are not inevitable outcomes of rapid growth; they are the product of choices about land governance. Better urban management matters only when it reshapes everyday incentives and improves how people live. Ultimately, it rests on secure tenure and sustainable local finance. Together, these determine whether rapid urban growth builds inclusion or hardens exclusion.

The Hard Turn: From Projects to Systems

To build more equitable urban centres, African leaders must start from the premise that land is a platform for citizenship. Secure land tenure – the legally recognised and enforceable right to occupy, transfer, or develop land – is a precondition for providing services, attracting private investment and establishing a fair city tax base. For example, in Accra, Ghana, property tax alone accounts for approximately 21 per cent of locally raised revenue, highlighting its significant role in financing major day-to-day city operations. Yet, an eviction-driven “order” that removes residents lacking formal papers merely trades informality for insecurity, instead of integrating them into planning, taxes, and service upgrades. African cities cannot harness demographic growth if fiscal systems perpetuate spatial exclusion rather than foster inclusion.

Replicable examples of secure land tenure for citizens exist across Africa today. For example, Rwanda’s National Land Tenure Regularisation has leveraged digital mapping and community participation to register 10-11 million parcels of land. This resolved over 60 per cent of land disputes, created secure tenure and stabilised the property tax base. Rwanda’s example demonstrates how the legal recognition of residents can finance inclusive urban growth, rather than constrain it. 

Sustainable Urban Financing 

Sustainable urban finance means cities can reliably raise their own revenues to plan, build, and maintain essential services, rather than relying on unpredictable donor cycles. While uncertainty about the core tax base persists, cities require funding every month, not just on ribbon-cutting days. Predictable, self-sourced revenue is what keeps homes connected to water, waste and power. Property tax remains the most reliable local instrument for financing housing upgrades and serviced land, yet across the continent, it is chronically underused. 

Research on African property taxes shows that when rolls are updated and enforcement is fair, cities can fund maintenance and plan upgrades from their own tax base. In Ethiopia, Addis Ababa’s leasehold auctions around light rail stations capture rising land values, generating major revenue for roads and housing. Lease payments and ground rents from these sites now account for a significant share of city income, helping to fund roads, drainage, and housing upgrades. 

Publishing block-level service data can build trust, expose which neighbourhoods are being left behind, and steer money to where it is most needed. Value-capture tools tied to housing and serviced land – such as inclusionary zoning that requires a share of new homes to be genuinely affordable, or fees on extra building rights in newly upzoned corridors – can then channel rising land values into affordable homes and better local services instead of pushing residents out.

Urban leaders should spend less on monuments and more on keeping basic systems working, judging success by whether their cities can equitably absorb population growth rather than by the skyline.

Build Life Chances, Not Skylines

Africa’s urban future will not be defined by skyscrapers but by who gets a fair shot at prosperity. Secure tenure, affordable homes, and land-backed finance are what drive real socioeconomic inclusion. For leaders, success should mean more residents with secure land titles, access to dependable services and a stake in their city’s future. Only when policies prioritise life chances, built on stable and equitable land systems, will urban growth deliver for everyone. 

Jesse Amoah is the Africa Fellow for Young Australians in International Affairs. Jesse is completing a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of New South Wales. His passion for Africa–Australia engagement is grounded in his Ghanaian heritage and shaped by experience across public policy and private markets. As an Africa Fellow, Jesse is committed to strengthening Australia’s strategic and diplomatic ties with the continent. He is particularly interested in how trade policy, diaspora networks, and investment diplomacy can position Australia as a meaningful partner in the African century.

Our 2025 Africa Fellow is sponsored by the Centre for Africa-Australia Relations. For more information, visit their website here.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Young Australians in International Affairs. AI was used only to support background research and fact-checking for this piece. All analysis, arguments and writing are entirely the author’s own, and AI did not contribute to the drafting or wording of the article.