Issues and Challenges of Urban Governance in Africa: The Nigerian Experience (Published)
The growth of urban centres has become one of the most remarkable trends of the 20th century Africa. Mans’ inclination to agglomerate in large number in a few urban centres is quite impressive. No wonder about 10 of the fastest growing cities in the world are found in Africa with an annual average growth rate of 3.5 percent and presently the fastest in the world. (UN World Urbanisation Prospect, 2014). The urbanisation process is accelerate by the dynamisms of the socio-political and economic conditions of the contemporary times, coupled with the increasing migration that takes place in Africa. As the ever increasing urban population lead to proliferation of cities, certain environmental, legal, institutional and other problems arise resulting in ineffective urban governance. This paper therefore examined the problem issues that have negative impacts on urban governance in Africa. Eeffective urban governance is to be understood from the perspective of Associative Network model. Data was basically drawn from secondary sources. Findings showed that effective urban governance hinges on efficient local government through synergy and collaboration of all stake holders, multi level government, public /private partnership, greater space for public participation etc.
Keywords: Challenge, Governance, Issues, Urbanization, urban governance