Building Resilient Cities in the Face of Climate Change in Africa

ABSTRACT This study, based on a systematic analysis of literature from 2014 to 2025, identifies the severe and escalating threats, including the projection that over 100 million Africans will live in vulnerable Low Elevation Coastal Zones by 2030 and the potential for heat exposure in cities like Lagos‐Ikorodu to increase from 0.25 to 23 billion person‐days annually under a high‐emission scenario. The analysis reveals that effective resilience hinges on an integrated financial and governance architecture, where the environmental impact of financial instruments is contingent on policy; for instance, business lending often increases emissions, whereas strategic green finance can be a potent mitigation tool. Crucially, the pursuit of a green economy must navigate the complex tug‐of‐war between economic ambitions such as export diversification and industrial growth and environmental quality, requiring policies that explicitly decouple prosperity from pollution. Promising strategies with documented efficacy include bioretention systems achieving up to a 92% reduction in stormwater runoff and the integration of nature‐based solutions. However, these are consistently undermined by pervasive challenges, including governance fragmentation, corruption, and a primary research focus on major cities that neglects secondary urban centres. The review concludes that bridging critical gaps particularly concerning the finance‐governance nexus, the evaluation of long‐term strategy effectiveness, and the integration of local knowledge with scientific data is essential for moving beyond incremental projects toward transformative, systemic urban resilience.