In African cities, bus rapid transit is a relatively new phenomenon. The first system was opened in 2008 in Lagos, Nigeria and since then, many more BRT systems have been undertaken and are in different stages of development. 2016 saw a record three new BRTs on the continent. Ousmane Thiam, Honorary President of the International Association of Public Transport and President of CETUD, the urban transport authority in Dakar (Senegal), reckons there will be a significant development of BRT in Africa over the next years.[1]
Currently, BRT systems are in operation in the following 21 African cities:
Accra (Ghana) – Aayalolo, opened in 25 November 2016 no along Bus Rapid Transit it now Quality Bus System.
Often BRT is advocated as a cheaper way to build rapid mass transit for Africa's larger cities compared to rail. Implementing these systems is also sometimes conceptualized as a way to initiate wider reform of local bus systems often consisting of privately operated and flexibly run minibuses, sometimes called paratransit or "informal" transport. This also means that these projects confront the problem of how to integrate with these systems and address concerns of replacement or displacement from actors that own and operate minibus systems leading to clashes and raising significant political challenges in implementation.[2]
