This study examines the complex relationship between environmental taxes, productive capacities, urbanization, and their collective effects on environmental quality in Africa, using a two-decade panel data set from twenty African countries. The study situates these relationships within the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and examines the impact of economic development, characterized by urban expansion and growth in productive capacities, on environmental outcomes. Advanced econometric techniques, including the Cross-Section Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) model and the Dynamic Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (DCCEMG) estimator, were employed to address challenges such as cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity in slope coefficients across countries. The results show that environmental taxes and productive capacities have different impacts on environmental quality, with significant differences between low-income and high-income countries. For wealthier countries, technological progress, especially in information and communication technologies, has a notable positive impact on environmental outcomes, while the benefits are less evident for lower-income countries, suggesting the need for tailored environmental and urban management strategies. These findings underscore the importance of policy frameworks that align economic growth with sustainable development goals, with a tailored approach that recognizes the unique socio-economic contexts within the African continent.