Collapse of financial markets: the greatest threat for African Cities

With rapid urbanization of the continent, more than 50% of the African population will live in cities by the year 2030.

The impact of natural catastrophes, of claims resulting from human activity and of the rush on cities has been evaluated by experts. Thus Lloyd's and Cambridge University have partnered to calculate an index measuring the economic impact of 18 of these events on 301 cities worldwide over a period of 10 years.

This measure is expressed in percentage of GDP. The study found that financial crashes topped threats for African Cities and that they would cost them 38.1 billion USD in economic losses by 2025.

Default of a sovereign issuer (33.9 billion USD) and the risk of pandemic (32.9 billion USD) come behind in second and third positions, respectively. Terrorism and earthquakes trail far behind with respective costs of 10.6 billion USD and 8.7 billion USD.