The Zambian capital Lusaka accounts for about a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and has a vibrant informal sector that drives economic activity, according to a new study published on Monday.
The study, produced by the Zambia Statistics Agency, showed that Lusaka’s contribution to GDP averaged 24.2 percent between 2016 and 2020.
“The city maintained an average annual growth rate of 3.1 per cent during the same period,” it said.
It highlighted the importance of the informal sector, which “contributed the largest share to GDP, averaging 40 percent of the city’s GDP since 2016.”
Furthermore, the study showed that Lusaka’s economic output per person was US$2,200, which was significantly higher than the national average of US$1,400.
It recommended that the government should prioritise policy interventions to attract investors into high-value sectors, improve the city’s competitiveness and boost economic productivity by facilitating the formalisation of many informal activities.
The study was funded by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) whose head for the southern African region Eunice Kamwendo acknowledged the importance of capital cities to national economies and called for disaggregated data at city level to inform urban planning and management.
“We hope this study will be of great value to the data landscape of Zambia to support evidence-based urban policy and planning and investment decisions,” Kamwendo said.
The study is part of a wider ECA initiative which seeks to promote a standardized practice of measuring city-level disaggregated statistics across Africa.
JN/APA