Sub-Saharan African countries (hereafter: Africa) face a formidable task to establish sustained economic growth through increased productivity, as the necessary basis for reducing poverty. Their situations are very diverse, with a few countries well established on an upward path, several others putting conditions in train for growth and good governance, but many more countries (and a majority of the African population) mired in place. The present paper asks how the ongoing processes of urban development—the demographic and economic transformation, and the management of cities and towns that result—can and should benefit all these countries, and what conditions are needed to achieve this. The urban transition is an opportunity as well as a management challenge for Africa. The urban areas are an underutilized resource that concentrate much of the countries’ physical, financial, and intellectual capital. Therefore it is critical to understand better how they can serve the national growth and poverty reduction agendas.