Joburg maintains position, Cape Town drops four places in Kearney Global Cities Report

OF the 13 African cities included in management consulting multinational Kearney’s ‘Global Cities 2021’ report, Johannesburg retained the highest ranking at 55, while Cairo climbed five places to 59. Cape Town, however, ranked seventy-seventh last year but dropped four places to 81 in the latest ranking.

“Even with some of the bigger African cities dropping position, we see from this year’s results the divergence in the trajectories of the most economically-advanced cities and those in developing and emerging regions, which largely showed improvement over the previous year,” says Kearney partner Prashaen Reddy.

Addis Ababa moved up eight places, propelled by Ethiopia’s development investments that have supported rapid economic growth.

Comprised of the Global Cities Index (GCI) and the Global Cities Outlook (GCO), the report reveals that the leading global cities have been resilient and adaptable, despite initially being hit hardest by Covid-19, because of their high connectivity and density.

It provided a stark snapshot of a