Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria has been ranked among the top three large African cities with the highest potential for inclusive growth, according to the 2015 MasterCard African Cities Growth Index (ACGI). Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, and Casablanca (Morocco) emerged first and second respectively.
Now in its third year, the ACGI maps African cities’ economic outlook according to their potential for inclusive urbanisation. The 74 cities were analysed and grouped into three categories by population size: large (over one million), medium (between 500,000 and one million) and small (under 500,000).
Twenty five economic and social inclusion indicators rank cities’ level of inclusive urbanisation, forecasting potential for inclusive growth. Once ranked, the cities fall into one of four bands describing their inclusive growth potential – high, medium-high, medium-low or low.
In Lagos, the third-ranked large city which also has medium-high growth potential, the increase in percentage of middle class households is significant due to the number of citizens that increase represents and the effect they will have on future consumption in the city.
