From Digital Journal 

Accra, the capital of Ghana, is the African city with the highest potential for inclusive growth, according to the 2014 MasterCard African Cities Growth Index (ACGI). This is the second consecutive year that Accra has taken the top spot on the Index.

Launched in 2013, the ACGI maps the continent’s economic outlook according to the inclusive urbanisation of its cities. Sets of lagging (historical) and leading (forward-looking) indicators were used to rank the cities’ level of inclusive urbanisation, forecasting potential for inclusive growth.

The 74 analysed cities were organised into three categories by population size: large (over one million), medium (between 500,000 and one million) and small(under 500,000). Once ranked, the cities fell into one of four bands describing their inclusive growth potential – high, medium-high, medium-low or low.

“Inclusive growth occurs when the benefits of an expanding economy are widely shared with the population,” says Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, co-author and Chief Economist at the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth. “We believe that inclusive urbanisation is a prerequisite for inclusive growth, and so the ACGI is a lens through which African cities can be assessed as future investment destinations.”

Accra was the top-ranked city overall and in the large city category. The only African city with high inclusive growth potential, Accra has legislation, policy and resources in place to increase and sustain economic inclusivity among its citizens. This contributes to Ghana’s potential for inclusive economic growth and development.

Read more at Digital Journal