Mining FDI and urban economies in sub-Saharan Africa: Exploring the possible linkages

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s many African countries have experienced rapid and sustained growth in foreign direct investment associated with the exploitation of oil and mineral resources. This has seen economic growth in some countries rising to levels more generally associated with fast-growth Asian nations. Previous bouts of mining-related commodity booms in parts of the continent were often described as doing little more than mimicking the patterns of colonial-extractive development, thus leading to little in the way of sustained and more widely felt economic transformations. However, in a context where African cities are continuing to grow, it is important to explore the relationships, if any, between this increasingly dominant contributor to GDP and investment in urban centres. This article explores some recent research in an effort to consider what the possible connections between mineral and urban economic trajectories might be with reference to a few selected countries. These include economic opportunities arising from urbanisation itself and those related to backward and forward linkages of both formal and informal mining processes.