In Africa's bustling urban centers like Nairobi, Lagos, and Johannesburg, the promise of upward mobility is a powerful magnet. People flock to these cities, believing that hard work and perseverance will unlock a better future. Yet, for the vast majority, this dream clashes with a harsh reality: deeply ingrained systems of exclusion, forged by history and reinforced by modern policy, block them from ever climbing the ladder of opportunity.
This isn't about individual failure; it’s a failure of structural mobility the ability for entire groups of people to move upward together. For millions of city residents, the rungs on this ladder were never built for them in the first place.
The systems that hinder social mobility in African cities are pervasive and multifaceted. I’ll highlight a few of them.
1. Unequal Access to Land and Housing
Land is the foundation of wealth and security. Yet, in many African urban centers, colonial-era laws continue to concentrate land ownership in the hands of a small elite. In Nairobi's Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums, residents often pay rent to landlords who themselves lack legal titles. Families can live for decades without secure tenure, unable to use their homes as collateral for loans or investments. Rather than legalizing these settlements, governments often resort to forced evictions, bulldozing entire communities in the name of "modernization," a practice that destroys what little wealth people have managed to accumulate. Land reform directly threatens the power and wealth of entrenched elites who profit from speculation and hoarding. Many politicians have personal stakes in these lucrative urban land deals, making meaningful change politically perilous.
2. Limited Access to Quality Education and Healthcare
Education is arguably the most critical engine for social mobility. Yet, public schools in many African cities are chronically underfunded and overcrowded. In Uganda, classrooms often squeeze 80 to 100 students per teacher, while in South Africa, wealthy families opt for expensive private schools. This creates a two-tiered system where a person's future is determined not by their talent, but by their family's wealth. Healthcare presents a similar barrier. An illness isn't just a health risk; it's a financial catastrophe. A mother in Accra might have to sell her market stall just to afford a C-section, trapping her family in a cycle of debt and poverty. Public investment is often undermined by corruption and a focus on "vanity projects" like new highways or convention centers that attract foreign investment, while long-term investments in schools and clinics are neglected. It’s not foreigners’ best interests to really prioritise these sectors.
3. Exclusion from Formal Employment
Africa has the world's youngest population, but its formal job market can't keep up. A university graduate in Lagos may spend years searching for a white-collar job that never materializes, eventually turning to the informal economy—driving a ride-hailing car or selling goods on the street. The informal sector, while a source of survival, offers little to no opportunity for upward mobility. Workers in this sector lack pensions, health insurance, and protection from exploitation. For instance, market vendors in Kampala often face harassment from city officials or are forced to pay bribes just to keep their stalls open. Governments often view the informal sector as a nuisance to be policed, rather than a vital part of the economy to be supported. Formalizing it would threaten the unofficial, corrupt bureaucracies that profit from its very informality.
4. Spatial Segregation and Lack of Infrastructure
African cities remain deeply segregated. The legacy of apartheid in Johannesburg still dictates where people live—the wealthy in secure suburbs, and the poor in distant townships. In Lagos, workers can spend up to four hours a day commuting, time and energy that could have been used for skill-building or with their families. Poor infrastructure, like unreliable electricity and internet, further reinforces this inequality, locking entire neighborhoods out of the modern digital economy. Urban planning is often driven by short-term private development deals that benefit a few, rather than long-term, inclusive strategies that would lift millions.
5. Financial Exclusion
Millions of urban residents are locked out of the formal financial system. Without official IDs, they can't open bank accounts or build a credit history. While mobile money has revolutionized financial access in countries like Kenya, many still fall victim to predatory lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates. Powerful banking lobbies often resist financial inclusion, as they profit from the high interest rates and exclusivity of the current system.
A New Policy Paradigm for Structural Mobility
These barriers are not insurmountable. The solutions are known and have been successfully piloted in various settings. What is needed is the political will to implement them at scale. At Ubuntu Think Tank we propose and work with various policy partners whose paradigm is built on several key pillars:
Land Tenure Reform & Upgrading: Governments must shift from demolition to legalization, providing legal titles and basic infrastructure to residents of informal settlements.
Massive Investment in Public Services: This means massively expanding free, high-quality public education and healthcare. A well-educated and healthy population is the bedrock of a productive economy.
Supporting the Informal Economy: Instead of policing informal workers, governments should provide micro-loans, business training, and pathways to formalization, helping small businesses grow and thrive.
Integrated Urban Planning: Cities must be designed to connect housing, jobs, and services, with affordable and efficient public transport systems.
Financial Inclusion: Expanding mobile banking and national ID systems to ensure everyone has access to affordable credit and can build a financial history.
Why These Solutions Rarely Take Root
Despite their proven success, these solutions often fail to be implemented on a large scale. The reasons are systemic:
Political Capture: Elites benefit from the status quo. Land speculation, private schools, and exclusive financial systems are highly profitable.
Short-termism: Politicians favor highly visible "ribbon-cutting" projects that win votes, rather than long-term, less glamorous investments in public services that would truly lift the masses.
Donor Dependency: External funding often comes with conditions that reflect the priorities of donors, not the needs of local communities.
Weak Institutions: Even well-meaning governments struggle with a lack of institutional capacity and poor policy design. This is tied to the poor conditions and education systems that the civil servants in these institutions are raised in.
At Ubuntu Think Tank, we recognize that African cities cannot afford to remain trapped in cycles of exclusion. Our work is rooted in systems thinking and institutional economics to expose these barriers and propose viable solutions. We aim to conduct policy research and modeling to show how different systems like land tenure and credit access are interconnected. We develop evidence-based proposals and run pilot projects with governments.
Through capacity building, we aim to equip policy makers and community leaders with the tools for integrated planning and financial inclusion. We also engage in advocacy and narrative change, challenging the myth of upward mobility and amplifying the stories of resilience from marginalized communities.
African cities don't lack talent, ambition, or creativity. What they lack are fair systems that allow everyone—not just the privileged few—to move up. Upward mobility should not be a myth or a lottery ticket. It must be a structural guarantee, a fundamental right that ensures no African child grows up trapped at the bottom simply because of where they were born. At Ubuntu Think Tank, we are committed to building these missing rungs and making the dream of an inclusive continent a reality.