The World Bank has called for improved infrastructure for African cities to enable them develop along with their growing populations. Bella Bird, the World Bank Country director for Tanzania, Malawi, Burundi and Somalia made the call at the bank’s training workshop for African journalists in Dar-es-Salaam.
Bird said that as African cities were growing in population,  there was need to improve their infrastructure to fast track development on the continent. She quoted the 2016 World Bank Report as saying that Africa’s urban population stood at 472 million people.
According to her, due to urbanisation, more migrants were presently pushed to cities from the countryside with another 187 million people to be added to urban cities by 2025. “This is the equivalent of adding another Nigeria to Africa’s population. Africa’s urban population will double over the next 25 years, reaching one billion people by 2040. Congestion and mobility problems affect the ability of people to connect to jobs, and firms to markets,” Bird explained.
She said Tanzania was not the only country facing challenges of growing urban population many other African countries were being confronted with same problems. “But in Tanzania, we are particularly pleased that the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, which we helped to develop and finance, is already bringing relief to city residents. In spite of some growing pains with the system, the project is popular and effective as the average round trip travels time for commuters using BRT line has been reduced by 90 minutes a day,’’ continued Bird.
She added that such transformation infrastructure investments were important for cities to increase their productivity and generate jobs for the youths.
Eric Chinje, chief executive officer, African Media Initiative, said that the  workshop was aimed at improving quality reportage on the impact of urbanisation in major African cities. He emphasized the need for the media to use its influencing powers on the government and other relevant international organisations to ensure solid outcomes for African citizens.
The one-week workshop with the theme: “Strengthening Reportage and Coverage of Urbanisation and Related Issues in sub-Saharan Africa,” has journalists from 40 African countries in attendance.