Empowering Africa's cities: fiscal autonomy and expertise

With the right tools, African cities can become engines of prosperity and sustainability

- NARA MONKAM

AFRICA is urbanising at an unprecedented pace. By 2050, nearly 60% of the continent’s population will live in cities, placing immense pressure on local governments to provide infrastructure, services, and sustainable economic opportunities.

Yet, despite the promises of decentralisation, African municipalities remain under-resourced, under-powered, and under-prepared. It is time to radically rethink the fiscal architecture of our cities - and to invest in the municipal finance expertise that will allow them not merely to survive, but to thrive.

Let us begin with a simple truth: cities cannot build what they cannot finance. The growing demand for housing, clean water, sanitation, and transport infrastructure cannot be met through unpredictable central transfers and outdated tax systems. According to UN-HABITAT and other researchers, a significant infrastructure deficit is widening across the continent and, if left unchecked, it will undermine Africa’s demographic dividend and economic growth potential.

Local governments are often perceived as the weakest link in public finance, but they are in fact the front line of development. From Nairobi to Dakar, from Lagos to Johannesburg, it is cities that must manage climate adaptation, enforce land use planning, and connect citizens to public goods.

To do this, they need financial autonomy - the authority not just to spend, but to raise and manage their own revenues.

Innovative models for revenue collection