Africa’s urban future cannot depend on government budgets alone. The numbers don’t lie. The African Development Bank estimates the continent needs 130–170 billion dollars annually for infrastructure, but presently only secures half that.
Meanwhile, cities grow at breakneck speed: Nairobi adds 200,000 people yearly; Lagos expands by 77 residents every hour. Traditional approaches can’t keep pace with this scale. But we’ve seen first-hand how smart public-private partnerships (PPPs), when done right, really change the game.
Take roads, for example. Governments own the land but lack construction cash. Private firms have the capital but need revenue certainty. The solution? Toll concessions like Nigeria’s Lekki-Epe or Nairobi’s Expressway. Yes, drivers pay fees, but they get smooth roads years faster than if government built them.
Housing tells the same story. Visit any African capital and see the informal settlements. Governments promise affordable homes but deliver thousands short.
Now, for example, look at Tatu City near Nairobi—15,000 houses built through PPPs, with schools and clinics included. Critics call it elitist, but middle-class demand proves otherwise. Units sell out almost instantly. Why? Because private developers deliver when governments alone cannot.
Then comes the energy imperative. Energy PPPs work because they align incentives perfectly: solar farms need scale to be profitable -- governments provide land and offtake agreements; companies deliver clean power.
South Africa’s REIPPP program is a great example: 6,000 MW of renewable energy added through competitive bidding, with tariffs dropping 80 percent since 2011.
Skeptics argue this privatises essential services, but when the alternative is mothers in hospitals losing babies when generators fail during blackouts, ideological purity becomes a luxury we can’t afford.
The anti-PPP crowd misses three truths. First, private money follows clear rules, not political whims. Second, competition improves quality (compare any state-run utility to a privately managed water system). Third, risks can shift (when Zambia’s Lusaka South Mall PPP failed, investors absorbed losses, not taxpayers).
But let’s not overly romanticise PPPs – they have also failed spectacularly in the past—usually when governments sign bad contracts. Johannesburg’s water privatization ignored affordability caps. Kenya’s railway PPP overpromised freight volumes. The lesson? Weak negotiators cost citizens dearly.
The best models protect public interests while attracting investment. Take an example of Morocco’s Casablanca Finance City which offers 99-year leases instead of land sales or Kigali’s Innovation City ties tax breaks to job creation: both worked.
The real obstacle isn’t money or ideas—it’s mindset. Some leaders still treat developers as exploiters rather than partners. Others fear losing control.
But results speak loudly – for a final example, look at Ethiopia’s Hawassa Industrial Park: 60 factories, 20,000 jobs, built in nine months through PPPs. That’s the pace Africa needs.
Leaders must choose whether to stick to traditional systems or embrace newer, tested solutions.
PPPs aren’t perfect, but they’re good tool to build cities at Africa’s needed speed. The question isn’t whether to use them, but whether leaders will learn from past mistakes to structure them right. The continent’s urban future can’t wait.
The writer is the organiser of the New Cities Summit
