Nairobi, July 15 -- Nairobi is set to become Africa's largest metropolitan area by 2050, overtaking megacities such as Cairo and Lagos, amid a surge in urbanisation, putting pressure on the capital's infrastructure, housing and power to provide jobs.

Projections by Africapolis, a research and data visualisation tool developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), show Nairobi's population will hit 57.2 million by 2050, up from 15.95 million in 2025.

This will place Kenya's capital ahead of Cairo's 55.5 million and Lagos' 36.9 million, with Egypt and Nigeria's capital currently having the largest population in the continent.

The growth of Nairobi's population is the product of urbanisation and the search ...