Africa has become the world’s fastest urbanising continent. This urbanisation is a huge challenge in areas with fragile institutional frameworks and chronic poverty. Existing cities often become overcrowded and congested. In response to this, both state and private developers increasingly see a market for New Towns – comprehensively planned, mixed-use urban developments on greenfield sites. To illustrate the extent of this phenomenon, the authors calculate that if all the New Towns in Africa that were announced by 2018 meet their targets, 77 million people in Africa (or nearly 10 percent of the total urban population), will be living in New Towns by 2030.