The economic growth paths of Asian and African countries have often been compared. China, with gross domestic product per capita of US$251 in 1987, was poorer than most African countries at the time. Uganda’s GDP per capita was US$392, Zambia’s US$319 and Ghana’s US$354. Yet today China has GDP per capita of US$6,091 and it is the world’s second largest economy. In Uganda, it is still only US$964.
Asia and Africa have urbanised at similar speeds. Africa is undergoing the fastest urban transition the world has experienced to date with projections that nearly 1 billion more people will live in Africa’s cities by 2050. Earlier, China was in the top spot: between 1978 and 2010, over 700 million people moved to China’s cities. The urbanisation rates in south-east Asia have been impressive as well and many of these nations have not even completed their urban transition yet.
There’s a difference too. Across China and south-east Asia, urbanisation has been coupled with industrialisation and, through increases in economic productivity, has been unlocking growth dividends and reducing poverty. The same pattern has not happened in Africa.
