Municipalities become cities

More expertise needed

Managing a city requires more expertise and resources than managing a town. Leaders must devise ways to attract capital, spur innovation, and provide higher productivity jobs for the growing population.

They must improve the efficiency of land use and spatial planning and offer incentives to encourage development of underused land. This will prevent sprawl and increase benefits of economic density.

The leaders must be able to craft a vision for the city that is built around what makes each city unique. A city must have character built around its main economic features, natural and built endowments, cultural and social activities and more. Some of the new cities have been planned as regional cities (Arua, Mbarara, Gulu and Mbale) and others as strategic cities; Jinja (industrial) and Fort Portal (tourism).

As municipalities, they were required by law to have a minimum population of 500,000 residents but almost all failed on that score. But Uganda felt it was lagging behind in number of cities as Tanzania has four and Kenya six. At one point it was suggested that to become a city, a Ugandan town at least attains a population of 300,000 people which Kampala had when it became a city in 1962. But they failed.

According to the World Population Review 2020 figures, the most populated; Gulu, has about 150,000 residents, Jinja 93,000, Mbarara 97,000 and Mbale 76,000. The smallest, Hoima, has 39,000 and Fort Portal 42,000.

The municipalities have been expanding in a bid to raise the necessary profile of a city; especially in terms of residents. Mbale sucked in neighbouring  Bungokho, Nakaloke, Bukonde, Namabasa, and Namanyoni. Bugema-Nauyo town council, Bukasakya and Bungokho-Mutoto are also now in Mbale city. Fort Portal city now includes Ibaale, Rubigo, Karambi , Karago Town Council, Bukuuku and Butebe. Jinja city includes includes Bugembe, Kakira, Busedde, Mafubira and Budondo.

Urban population explosion

But the new small cities should not worry about numbers.  The Fifth Uganda Economic Update in 2015 titled `Getting Ugandan Cities to Work: Achieving Efficient, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth’ predicted that the number of people living in towns and cities in Uganda would shoot to 20 million by 2040. About one in every three people in Uganda will live in a town. Kampala is projected to become a mega-city of more than 10 million by 2040, and other cities in the country are also expected to have a demographic explosion. It currently has just 1.5 million residents.

At this point, Uganda will join other nations across the globe where up to 80 percent of economic activity is generated in cities. Currently, 70 percent of non-agricultural GDP in Uganda is generated in urban areas with the central region being the most urbanised.

The update by the World Bank warned that this growth would pile pressure on the central government and local government leaders to devise ways to deliver the better services, jobs, and opportunities that the urban dwellers would require and demand. It noted that to ensure efficient, inclusive, and sustainable growth, the cities would have to become more competitive and this would require improved planning and coordination.

Most newcomers into the cities will add to increase pressure for jobs. They will expand the slum areas unless adequate housing is developed through supportive policies and actions.

“Cities have the potential to propel growth, attracting capital, spurring innovation, providing higher productivity jobs. Services can be provided more cost-effectively, improving access for all,” said Somik Lall, Lead Urban Economist. “To reap these benefits, urban growth needs to be managed well by planning for land use and basic services, connecting to make a city’s markets accessible, and financing to meet infrastructure needs.”

To ensure that urbanisation is sustainable and inclusive, the leaders must ensure that land and property rights are conducive for increasing economic density of cities. They must improve transport infrastructure and systems, craft favourable housing policies, increase access to social services such health and education, and public services such as water and sanitation services.

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