How will African cities deal with the problems posed by population growth, climate change and urbanization in the coming years? Are smart cities the answer? A case study of Lagos and Nairobi. A presentation for: Athens Co Creation City Branding Project, Panteion University https://www.facebook.com/groups/344955005611178/ https://medium.com/athens-co-creation-city-branding-project

1. Smart Cities in Africa:
A Continent in Transition
A presentation by:
Fotini Maltezou (fimaltezou@gmail.com)
& Achilles Panagiotou (achilles.p@gmail.com)
MA in Information Society, New Media and Technology
Course: Cultural Marketing and Communication
Athens Co Creation City Branding Project
Course Instructor: Betty Tsakarestou

2. By 2050, Africa’s urban
dwellers are projected to
have increased from 400
million to 1.2 billion.
Africa is experiencing unprecedented population growth
(by 2030 Africa’s population will exceed that of Europe,
South and North America combined).
50 per cent of Africans today remain at
incomes below USD 1.25 per day, while
only 4% receive more than USD 10 per day.
(The African middle class: 2 - 20 USD per
day).
By 2060 it might be a
resource scarce economy
A Continent in Transition
Resource Depletion
Undiversified Economic Growth
Inability to adapt to new global challenges

3. Significant transitions take place:
E C O N O M I C
T E C H N O L O G I C A L
E N V I R O N M E N T A
L
U R B A N A N D
S O C I O - P O L I T I C A L
D E MO G R A P H I C
Despite a feeble global economy, Africa’s performance is
promising, with an increasing number of nations progressing
towards high rankings among the world’s emerging economies.
Re-imagining
sustainable
urban
transitions
Significant transitions take place
• More than a quarter of the 100 fastest-growing cities in the
world are in Africa
• Booming cities supporting growing middle classes and
creating sizable consumer markets.
• Urban growth accompanied by massive urban poverty and
many other social problems
• New vulnerabilities and threats associated with climate and
environmental change.

4. Urbanization
50% and 70% of poor African
households’ budgets are
spent on food, water, energy
and transport (vulnerable to
external shocks such as
sharp rises in the costs of
electricity, oil and petroleum,
food and water).
Unplanned slums and
informal settlements present
systemic problems
Combining the offerings of the
fourth industrial revolution
with new green technologies
that are largely decentralized
or semi-decentralized (small-
scale wind and hydro energy).
• Northern Africa is highly urbanized
• Eastern Africa is the world’s least
urbanized but fastest urbanizing sub-
region.
• Western Africa, the most rapidly
urbanizing sub-region in Africa after
Eastern Africa
• Central Africa is rapidly urbanizing, but
the subregion is not expected to reach
a region-wide urban majority until
around 2030
• Southern Africa, the most urbanized
region in sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa and the fourth industrial revolution
merging of digital, physical and biological worlds

5. The United Nations
Development
Program (UNDP)
• UNDP works with countries and
communities to chart development paths
that are low-carbon, climate-proof and use
ecosystems and biodiversity for the benefit
of present and future generations.
• Collaborates with governments, civil
society and the private sector to help them
transform their economies (Private sector is
a key driver of Africa’s emergence) to
• Create jobs and making sure resources are
invested back into communities
• In 2018 YAS! (Youth for Africa and
Sustainable Development Goals) is a
Digital pan-African platform for young
entrepreneurs: four main pillars of the
entrepreneurship ecosystem: Information,
Mentorship, Funding and Network.

6. 2014
The state of
African cities
Africa must rapidly improve its
social services, especially in its
mushrooming cities, to create
better working and living
conditions as well as new
economic opportunities for its
young people who will have to
carry forward the current
economic momentum. This
includes encouraging the
return of Africa’s diaspora brain
drain which, in turn, implies the
provision of more attractive
urban living and working
conditions.
“Transformation towards
sustainable and resilient
societies” and Goals 6, 7, 11,
12 and 15 of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development.
Trends in science, technology
and innovation (STI) in Africa
5 goals of the 2030 Agenda
(in correspondence with
Agenda 2063).

7. Could African cities
harness green
technologies for growth
and jobs?
Water
Security
Health &
Sanitation
Waste
Management
Modest waste generation
Energy Supply
Inadequate access to
energy resources
Food
Security
Land degradation
Ensuring Sustainable
Resource Flows
• Unplanned slums and informal
settlements
• Between 50% and 70% of poor
African households’ budgets are
spent on food, water, energy and
transport. This makes them
vulnerable to external shocks such
as sharp rises in the costs of
electricity, oil and petroleum, food
and water.
• The fourth industrial revolution
presents a massive opportunity to
leapfrog African countries’
productive economies into a wholly
new space.
External
threats &
shocks:
eco-
migration
Climate change
adaptation over
mitigation

8. Lookfor
partnersthat:
COUNTRIES ACROSS AFRICA ARE PUTTING
"SMART CITIES" ON THEIR AGENDAS
• The Nigerian Smart Cities Initiative (Nigeria smart city Summit August 2017)
• The underlying ICT infrastructure is a key element of smart city success.
• Deliver lean, optimal and efficient services (energy sources e.g., PV and wind
energy)
• Integrated with other services as intelligent smart city capabilities expand.
• The ICT provider will play a broader role, implementing ICT infrastructure but
also coordinating between service providers.
• Look for the right partners
• Have broad industry experience, with an understanding the operations and priorities of
different sectors and stakeholders
• Can create strong collaborative relationships across and between sectors
Smart Africa’s
Vision
Statement:
“Transform
Africa into a
Single Digital
Market”
Nov 19, 2018
IoT: Sweeping
Africa’s
Development in
the Wake of
Global Digital
Transformation
• Can do strategic planning and service rollouts based
on customer needs and stakeholder readiness
• Can offer data centre, interconnect and international
connectivity
• Can facilitate open access models, providing
network control, management and maintenance
• Offer smart city stakeholders integrated, shared
and hosted platforms to flight their services
• Have the data and analytics capabilities to enable
multi-party services
• Can facilitate service provision and revenue
collection

9. • Rapid population growth
• By 2020, Africa is likely to be
the fastest urbanizing
continent in the world
• By 2030, six of the world’s 41
megacities will be in Africa.
• Νearly 350 million new city-
dwellers by 2030, and
• a billion more by 2063.
• The African Union (AU)
developed Agenda 2063.
• Today 60% of the population is
living in slums
• By 2050, Africa’s slum
population will have tripled.
Newly developed satellite
"smart cities:" ambitious
multi-billion dollar, hyper-
livable tech cities populated
with bustling, beautified
boulevards, private condos
and luxury cars.
• Eko Atlantic in Lagos,
Nigeria,
• Waterfall City (South Africa),
• Hope City in Ghana
New landmark locations built
entirely from scratch:
• Vision City on the edge of
Kigali in.
• Appolonia and King City in
Ghana
• Kenya's new tech hub
Konza
• Tatu City in Kenya
URBAN
GOVERNANCE IS
SHARED
BETWEEN THE
PRIVATE AND
PUBLIC SECTOR
Urbanization
in Africa

10. Chris Giles
of CNN asks:
Will these ambitious
projects be of benefit
to a fortunate few or
can smart
cities provide a
genuine solution to
Africa’s fast-paced
urbanization?
Smart cities in
Africa are first and
foremost designed
to provide a
solution to a
critical lack of
housing.

11. Lagos
The New York of Africa

12. SmartLagos
TheIoT
challenge
Lagos, Nigeria 2018: The YAS Program
The UNDP and Accenture announced the launch of YAS!
• YAS! is a Digital pan-African platform for young entrepreneurs
• Four main pillars of the entrepreneurship ecosystem: Information, Mentorship, Funding and Network
• Nigeria and Egypt are taking a lead
Lagos, Nigeria the fastest growing city in Africa with a population of 21 million people and huge
traffic congestion.
• Lagos has doubled to nearly 14 million people between 2000–2016 (Business Insider’s list) ,
and it is expected to explode to 88.3 million people by 2100 to be the world’s most populous city
overall.
• Data from smart cars can help to improve traffic, which can help to develop and improve smart
cities in Africa.
• With IoT, traffic lights can adjust to real-time traffic conditions such as when an emergency
vehicle is approaching.
• Road sensors will make changes to the speed limit based on weather and accidents, while also
communicating directly to car dashboards about unsafe conditions with caution messages to
slow down, beware of the accident scene in the turn in a quarter mile, etc.

13. Smart Lagos:
Status, prospects
and opportunities
(a smart city vision)
December2017
Lagos State government
launches “Lagos Innovates” to
support tech entrepreneurs.
Cheap talent,
large market,
Increased interest
of tech giants
like Google,
Facebook,
and Microsoft in
Lagos
Startups
Andela
Jumia
MainOne
Incentives to
establish
small power
plants (1
MW) that
need not plug
into the
national grid
(the aim is to
have
uninterrupted
power supply
by 2023).
• Much of the tech industry in Nigeria, at least 70% it is reckoned, is in Lagos.
• Compared to other tech hub cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nairobi, and
Kigali, Lagos differentiates itself in terms of potential market size.
• With a startup ecosystem valued at $2bn, it is the most valuable African tech city,
overtaking Cape Town, Johannesburg and Nairobi.
• In 2016 the Lagos tech scene got most of the $109.37m in (500) startup funding for
Nigeria, more foreign capital than any of its African rivals. (South Africa secured
$96.75m and Kenya got $92.7m in tech startup financing in 2016.
Savvy
entrepreneurs
built the so-
called
“Computer
Village” in the
Ikeja capital
district of
Lagos
June 2015
Lagos-based Andela trains
programmers and facilitates
their placement with software
companies around the world.
CNN calls it “the startup that’s
harder to get into than
Harvard”.
January2017
Yabacon Valley in a district of
Lagos called Yaba, where techies
have been aggregating to create
innovative solutions. State
governor Akinwunmi Ambode
announces plans to transform
Yaba into a major technology
hub. ₦25bn employment trust
fund.

14. Eko Atlantic City
To become the new financial headquarters for Nigeria attracting international businesses
and tourism and to serve as the gateway to emerging markets. As a prime development,
Eko Atlantic will incorporate the highest standard of living, best conditions for business and
represent African excellence.
• Efficient energy generation fueled by natural gas and solar panels that are installed on the main
water reservoirs.
• The towers on the 8.5 meter above the sea-level island are on average 35 stories high and
will provide more than 10 million square meters of real estate opportunities for businesses
and residential.
• Once completed, Eko Atlantic City will be home to 300,000 residents and 200,000 commuters
who will enjoy the largest shopping mall in West Africa, a stunning waterfront promenade, two
large marinas, and so much more.
• 200,000 trees are being raised to soon be planted on the island to provide greenery.

15. “Lagos
Innovates”
Old problems – New challenges
NIGERIA ICT and more
• Where was the Galaxy Backbone when an alleged fire accident in the accounts department of
FAAN destroyed documents that could have aided investigations into a ₦100m fraud case?
• The Vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, in a speech at The Platform, confirmed that the
federal government is partnering with a Nigeria owned cloud service, MainOne for the project
..and I (the author) wondered, “what happened to Galaxy Backbone?”
Keynote speaker a top thinker on African issues, Oxford professor,
Paul Collier:
“Smart does not mean elite. Smart means a city that works for
everybody in it. A city that works means that ordinary people can
become productive and so earn a decent living.” such as
transportation, ICT, tourism, hospitality, entertainment, and sports for
excellence
“Lagos Innovates” to support tech entrepreneurs. Through the
programme, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) would be
provided with the infrastructural support, training, capital and
networks they need to succeed. The initiative copies similar models
in Chile, India and Singapore.
May 2017:
“Towards a Smart
City: Preparing for
the next 50 years of
prosperity”

16. Is Lagos really
the world’s
least livable
city, besides
Damascus?
• Boko Haram: Lagos has been largely
spared from its attacks *.
• Lagos Has a Booming Economy
(Lagos is not entirely dependent on
oil)
• Lagos Has a Burgeoning Tech Scene
• Infrastructure Is Bad, but It Should Get
Better
• Lagos Has a Thriving Entertainment
Industry (Nollywood, Nigeria’s
eclectic and rapidly growing film
industry)
* One could argue that:
“Western cities such as London and Paris
have suffered multiple large-scale militant
attacks in the past three years, most of
which have been claimed by the Islamic
State militant group (ISIS).”
Lagos collects
far more taxes
than other
states in
Nigeria

17. Nairobi
Beyond Safaris and Artisan Markets

18. Things to know about Nairobi
• Capital of Kenya
• Nairobi means “cool water”, referencing the
Nairobi River passing through the city
• Nairobi is an established hub for businesses and
culture
• Nairobi National Park
• Multicultural city
• Houses the United Nations Environment
Programme & United Nations Office at Nairobi
• Kibera slum

19. Nairobi ranked 6th
most dynamic, fastest-
growing cities in the
world
• Nairobi (6th) is projected to be one
of fastest-growing cities in the
world in terms of population over
the next five years, and this is
matched by very robust economic
growth.
• Absorbing this pace of migration is
creating some issues. Nairobi
frequently ranks near the top of
indices that address congestion; a
heavy reliance on cars and buses
ensures that traffic jams are a daily
problem.
• Increase transparency to bring
foreign direct investment
The central business district
houses many of Kenya's big
businesses and banks
• Nairobi Stock Exchange
• Kenyatta International
Conference Centre
• I&M Bank Tower

20. Smart City
• Won the title of Most
Intelligent City in Africa for
two years in a row
• A smart city starts at the
planning stage
• Nairobi is replicating the
steps Singapore followed
on becoming a smart city
• In 2007, Kenya launched
M-Pesa, a mobile money
system that allows people
to transfer money and pay
bills.
• In 2010, Nairobi invested
further into fostering
innovation by creating the
iHub, a tech incubation
By 2015, iHub spawned
150 start-ups and had
created more than 1,300
jobs.
The Pinnacle (Pinnacle Towers)
• One of the tallest buildings in Africa.
• The development is a joint venture by
• Hass Petroleum and White Lotus
Group, a Dubai-based investment
firm.
• The main contractor is China State
Construction Engineering Corporation

21. • Konza City, located 60km from Nairobi’s center, is being built to become the African version of the
Silicon Valley, or Silicon Savanah, featuring world class infrastructure, sustainability and inclusive
growth.
• The first building has yet to be completed (Dec 2018) on the 5,000-acre former cattle ranch, three
years after breaking ground, and business has shifted its focus to other African countries, like
Rwanda, with competing visions to become modern tech hubs.
• Utopia ? Cold feet ? Current funding a drop in the Ocean.

22. Nairobi Central Park
Between parliament
buildings and business
buildings
What people think
“Living in the city is quite enjoyable due to
efficiency of accessible tarmac roads, shopping
malls, market centers, luxuries hotels, hospital
even the latest discovery of the modern electric
train.”
“I loved Nairobi. Hated the
corruption. Eventually, the
corruption was a major factor in
me selling my businesses and
leaving the market.”
“Nairobi is a beautiful city with
beautiful and hard-working people. A
preferred destination for the young
generation hyperactive about social
life.”

23. Kibera Slums
• Population: 500.000 – 1.000.000
• An upgrade is complicated because of:
crime rate, lack of foundations, topography
• Clearance on Sep 2019
• Postponed several times
• Legally challenged
• Nubian community living here for
100yrs

24. How smart a
continent can
be when
WATER AND
SANITATION
PROBLEMS
RAVAGES IT?
• Only four countries
(Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt,
and South Africa) in Africa
continent have managed
to provide better sanitation
to their citizens leaves a
lot to be desired by all
concerns.
• Most of the countries on
the continent have not
reached the goal even to
provide adequate quality
water to their population.
• Some cities and towns
have done very little to
provide sanitation facilities
in most of their institutions,
Kenya is included.

26. Global Cities Report 2018
8th Global Cities report highlights regional trends
Global Cities Index Global Cities Outlook
Nairobi 76
Lagos 83
Nairobi 121
Lagos 133

28. Innovation Cities Index 2018: Africa

29. City Brands Index by Anholt-Gfk Roper
2006 CBI 2011 CBI
Lagos 59
Nairobi 60
Lagos ??
Nairobi ??

30. JLL City Momentum Index 2018

31. 1. By 2030 one in five people will be African
2. 2 billion babies will be born in Africa over the next 33 years.
3. The overwhelming majority of Africans (93%) today have access to a mobile phone
service, but less than two thirds have access to piped water.
4. Samsung Africa’s number one most admired brand.
5. In 11 African countries, women hold close to one-third of parliamentary seats. This is
more than in Europe.
6. African women hold two thirds of all jobs in the non-agricultural informal sector, and
on average only make 70 cents for each dollar made by men. (The UN estimates
that discriminatory gender policies in sub-Saharan Africa cost the region up to $105
billion each year, or 6% of its GDP.
6 numbers that
prove the future is
African

32. What is Europe looking for:
The TuNur project
• Desert solar project could power 5
million EU homes.
• Europe currently has about 100GW
of solar photovoltaic power capacity,
the bloc’s sixth largest source after
natural gas, wind, coal, large hydro
and nuclear.
• If TuNur’s plan to add 4.5GW of
renewable energy to the mix comes
to fruition, then Brussels’ renewable
energy targets will be easier to
achieve, especially if the initial phase
of 250MW comes online by 2020,
when the EU’s 20% renewable
energy goal has its deadline.
• The TuNur project demonstrates the
potential for renewable energy to
meet the needs for low-carbon power
in Tunisia as well as in North Africa
and Europe (large-scale renewable
energy projects in emerging markets
are a recent phenomenon and are
likely to face a number of commercial
barriers). Some media outlets have
already linked TuNur to ‘energy
colonialism’ and ‘land-grabbing’. the
TuNur project could also be
threatened by instability at the
national level.

33. Africa-EU
Key statistical indicators
highlights
• The African population reached almost 1.3
billion people in 2017, more than double the
population of the EU (512 million people).
• From 2016 to 2017, GDP grew faster in
Ethiopia (10.3%), Ghana (8.5%) and the
Democratic Republic of Congo (7.6%) than in
the best performing EU country (Ireland 7.2%).
• In 2016, the African countries Seychelles,
Botswana, Mauritius, Gabon, South Africa,
Gambia and Ghana all had more mobile
subscriptions per inhabitant than the EU
average (1 231 mobile subscriptions per
thousand inhabitants).

34. Competing in
Africa:
China
European Union
United States
• Demand for natural resources and job creation forced China to look for markets
abroad. Africa was a willing partner, due to its abundance of commodities and need for
infrastructure development (financing of more than 3,000, largely critical, infrastructure
projects). China has become the region’s largest creditor, accounting for 14 percent of
sub-Saharan Africa’s total debt stock.
• Launch of the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership and the first-ever summit between the
27 members of the EU and the 54 nations of Africa in 2007 seem to have hit a reset of
sorts in the two regions’ relationship
• Since 2000, U.S.-African commercial relations have been based on the African Growth
and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a non-reciprocal trade agreement that grants about 40
countries duty-free access for approximately 6,400 products to the U.S.

35. The African
Climate Risks
Conference
The conference aims to:
• Disseminate results and share insights in Africa;
• Provide a forum to co-identify common priorities
• Contribute to efforts to ensure greater impact and legacy of on-going research
programmes
• Link researchers and the diversity of other actors important for moving research into
policy and practice: decision-makers, national meteorological agencies, knowledge
brokers, donors, NGOs etc.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
from 7-9 October2019