Nairobi to become one of fastest growing cities globally

Within the next four years, Nairobi will be one of the fastest growing cities in the world, a new study has revealed.

In a survey of the global competitiveness of cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EUI) declared that if Nairobi maintains its projected growth of 5.2 per cent, it will be one of the 40 fastest-growing cities in the world by 2016.

Dubbed Hot Spots: Benchmarking Global City Competitiveness, the study considered 120 cities around the world.

Nairobi, like other cities in the developing world, lagged behind coming in at the 115th position for overall competitiveness.

However, the city could climb up the ranks in the coming years.

“With concomitant improvement in some other aspects of competitiveness — such as the quality of infrastructure and the regulatory environment — these cities could rise up the Index rankings quickly,” reads part of the report.

The cities surveyed in the research commissioned by Citigroup represent about 29 per cent of the global economy and have a combined GDP of $20.2 trillion.

EUI defined competitiveness as a city’s ability to attract capital, business, talent and visitors.

It measured this by considering 31 categories, including the business and regulatory environment, the quality of human capital and other cultural aspects.

Despite the sombre overall ranking, Nairobi beat some of the world’s largest cities to come in at the 50th position for the quality of human capital.

Johannesburg was 53rd in this category while Tokyo and Beijing trailed in the 56th position.

As firms fight to attract highly-educated and skilled workers, they often choose new cities for growth on the basis of the potential talent pool and living conditions.

“We have been working very hard to make the city conducive for big companies and their employees.

Infrastructure projects are making the city more livable and security has also improved,” said Nairobi City Council finance chairman, Mr Michael Oganda.