Lagos is Nigeria has been ranked the fifth best city worldwide for efforts to foster entrepreneurial culture in the 2015 Youthful Cities Index, with other African cities falling significantly behind.
The Youthful Cities Index gathers data from 55 cities worldwide, and considers 22 attributes which contribute to making a city youthful, ranging from education and employment, to music and nightlife.
One of the indicators considered is entrepreneurship, measuring the extent to which entrepreneurial culture is fostered in a city.
Of the 55 cities examined worldwide, Nigeria’s Lagos ranked fifth in terms of the entrepreneurship ratings.
In order, Johannesburg, Accra, Durban, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Casablanca and Cairo all received ratings of 2.5 out of 10 and below for the entrepreneurship attribute.
However, African cities did perform well on a drill down of the entrepreneurship indicator.
For example, Casablanca rates third in the world for the age at which it is possible to register a business.
In terms of total early stage entrepreneurial activity, Lagos ranked first worldwide, and Dar es Salaam ranked third.
Digital access was also an attribute included in the index, measuring the level of WiFi accessibility at various everyday locations in cities, the level of mobile phone infrastructure development, as well as the cost of internet and mobile phone minutes.
African cities performed badly in terms of digital access, with most rated below 4 out of 10 in this attribute. Only Lagos and Cairo were higher, at 5 out of 10.
In the overall “youthfulness” rankings considering all 22 attributes, Johannesburg was the highest ranking African city, listed as the world’s 35th most youthful city. Casablanca ranked at 44, Durban at 47, Cairo at 48, Lagos at 49, Nairobi at 51, Dar es Salaam at 53, and Accra ranked 55th.
The world’s top three most youthful cities were named as New York, London and Berlin.
