NAIROBI has been ranked sixth in a ranking of African cities with the highest economic growth potential over the next five years, according to a study published yesterday.

Accra, Lusaka and Luanda, the capital cities of Ghana , Zambia and Angola respectively took the top three spots according to the MasterCard African Cities Growth Index .

The MasterCard African Cities Growth Index was developed in the final quarter of 2012 and analysed 19 cities across sub-saharan Africa ranking them according to their growth potential between 2012 and 2017.

Rankings were developed from published historical and projected data on typical factors that impact cities' growth rates, including: economic data, governance levels, ease of doing business, infrastructure and human development factors and population growth levels.