Via The Financial Times, an interesting list of the emerging African cities that will make a difference in the years ahead:

As beyondbrics has reported before, the expansion of emerging market cities is a big deal. Urban dwellers tend to be richer than their rural counterparts, they spend more, and they are easier for companies to reach.

But when it comes to Africa and the growth story, we tend to think in terms of countries. Handily, the Economist Intelligence Unit has got past that, and identified the key 25 cities that you need to know about.

So here they are (with their country and population as well):

EIU: 25 African cities

City	Country	Population (m)
Abidjan	Ivory Coast	4.0
Abuja	Nigeria	1.9
Accra	Ghana	2.3
Addis Ababa	Etiopia	2.9
Alexandria	Egypt	4.4
Algiers	Algeria	2.7
Cairo	Egypt	10.9
Cape Town	South Africa	3.4
Casablanca	Morocco	3.2
Dakar	Senegal	2.8
Dar es Salaam	Tanzania	3.2
Douala	Cameroon	2.0
Durban	South Africa	2.8
Johannesburg	South Africa	3.6
Kampala	Uganda	1.5
Khartoum	Sudan	5.0
Kumasi	Ghana	1.8
Lagos	Nigeria	10.2
Luanda	Angola	4.5
Lusaka	Zambia	1.4
Maputo	Mozambique	1.6
Mombasa	Kenya	0.9
Nairobi	Kenya	3.4
Tripoli	Libya	1.1
Tunis	Tunisia	0.8
Source: EIU, CIA World Factbook

And here on a map:

Pratibha Thaker, EIU regional director for Middle East and Africa told beyondbrics that “although it’s the country numbers that grab the headlines, it’s the next level, the city level, which is where the market is. Increasing numbers of companies are looking at cities rather than at a country level.”

It makes sense – as the EIU data show, city dwellers tend to spend roughly twice what people living in rural areas spend. “It’s where people earn and burn their money”, adds Thaker. “It’s something that companies have woken up to a little late, but better late than never”.

Here are some of the nuggets from the EIU data:

• City dwellers tend to spend roughly twice what people living in rural areas spend.
• 30 per cent of Lagos households earn over $10,000 per year, compared to just 17 per cent of households in Johannesburg.
• More than two-fifths of the populations of Luanda, Lusaka and Kampala are under the age of 15.
• Abidjan is the third most expensive city after Luanda and Johannesburg, with the highest prices for restaurants and hotels
• Per capita spending on household maintenance is virtually identical in Cairo and Dakar at just over $100, but per capita spending in Cairo on entertainment ($62) is double that in the Senegalese capital.