Business
Satellite cities grow in new urbanization projects in Africa
Artistic Impression of the Konza Techno City. IMAGE/File
Property developers are building satellite cities and new housing compounds on the outskirts of some of the largest cities in Africa, demonstrating a new trend in African urbanization.
Drive down the increasingly well-paved Lekki Expressway east of Lagos and take the exit for the new Free Trade Zone. You will be surprised by huge housing estates looming on the horizon.
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Many cities in Africa are bursting at the seams. Cairo’s night-time population of eight million doubles by the day. Capital cities are choked with traffic. Housing, school places and hospital beds are in short supply. Commercial rents are cut-throat. Decades of under-investment in the legal infrastructure of property rights means there are many ownership disputes, thus freezing investment.
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Seeing this as an opportunity, developers are building independent urban projects on the periphery of cities, starting afresh. From Lekki to Tatu City outside Nairobi, the Cité du Fleuve in the middle of the Congo River outside Kinshasa and the Land of Honey development in Abuja, these new cities will bring the dream of hassle-free modern living to those who can afford it: security, running water, electricity, shopping and reliable communications.