ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the main elements of the typical discourse on urbanisation in Africa before showing their weaknesses and then exposes the often poorly understood opportunities that follow on from them. Urbanization has a strong correlation with the rate of real gross domestic production growth, because productivity in cities is more than double that in the countryside. Firstly, the correlation between rising urban populations and economic growth seems more tenuous in Africa. Secondly, Africa’s urbanisation modalities are different from the forms seen in other regions of the world and other historical periods. Urbanisation in sub-Saharan Africa had a spillover effect on the modernisation of supply chains for agricultural goods, such as commercial networks, storage and transportation. The urbanisation of the countryside that the author mentioned will happen through the creation of rural jobs that have long been considered urban: from mechanics and computer specialists to notaries and doctors, agronomists and solar panel specialists.
