slides used during my intervention at the Future Urban Legacy Lab (FULL) event "innovation & startups in African cities"
http://urbanlegacylab.net/events/innovation-and-startups-in-african-cities/
2. Outline
1. About me
2. History & debunking clichés
3. African Cities // Cities in Africa
4. Stats
5. Areas of innovation in cities in Africa
6. In depth example: digital Matatus (Nairobi, Kenya)
7. Conclusion & an attempt at predicting the future
Q&A
17. Wikipedia says…
• The urbanization rate in Africa is slowing, but so is the population growth rate,
much because of HIV/AIDS. The big cities of Africa will probably continue to grow,
but the future is as always uncertain. In 1994 it was expected that Lagos would
become the world's third biggest city with 24.4 million inhabitants by 2015, but in
2001 this was adjusted to the world's eleventh biggest city with 'only' 16 million
inhabitants. This shows how uncertain the numbers are, and how unpredictable
the African population development is.
• It is evident that like in the rest of the world, the African urbanization process has
mainly been influenced by economy. The colonial powers placed ports, railways
and mines to economically strategic places. The cities have both in colonial and
post-colonial times been economically prioritized. People came to these places
for nationalistic pride, work, administration, education and social services.
19. Rank Largest Cities In Africa Estimated Metro Population
1 Lagos, Nigeria 21.0 million people
2 Cairo, Egypt 20.4 million people
3 Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo 13.3 million people
4 Luanda, Angola 6.5 million people
5 Nairobi, Kenya 6.5 million people
6 Mogadishu, Somalia 6.0 million people
7 Abidjan, Ivory Coast 4.7 million people
8 Alexandria, Egypt 4.7 million people
9 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 4.6 million people
10 Johannesburg, South Africa 4.4 million people
11 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 4.4 million people
12 Casablanca, Morocco 4.3 million people
13 Accra, Ghana 4.1 million people
14 Durban, South Africa 3.4 million people
15 Kano, Nigeria 2.8 million people
Despite uncertainties, a few numbers, for perspective..
27. Are cities in Africa well positioned to start
adopting Smart cities technologies?
1. Limited legacy drawbacks
2. Youthful consumer population
3. Urbanization
4. Entrepreneurial Culture
5. Connectivity
6. Overarching governmental leadership strategically
positioning ICT as an enabler
33. Importance of innovation hubs
• Bring together like minded (often young) people
• Catalyst for ideas
• Turning ideas into business
• Investment support & vehicle
• Driver of social change
• Link with tech giants (telcos, google, facebook..)
Yaba is Nigeria’s silicon valley
43. To sum up:
• Working with local university
• Data collection using relevant & local technology
• Workshop with community
• Using state of the art, universal format (GTFS)
• Making result available locally in relevant format (paper)
• Engaging with local tech ecosystem to develop apps
• Engage in planning
44.
45. 5 Forecasts for the Future of African Cities
1. Tech Sectors Will Shift City Borders—or Erase Them Entirely
2. Cities Will Lean on Community-Based Solutions in the Fight
Against Climate Change - & other issues
3. Wireless Technology and the ‘Internet of Things’ Will Spur
Social Impact
4. Lessons From the Ebola Outbreak Will Increase Investments
in Health Care Infrastructure
5. Innovation Hubs Will Drive Further Creativity and
Collaboration
By Colin Crowley - Flickr: kibera_photoshow01, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28632865
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39247381
It’s a mixed picture (!): for all the nice cities in Africa, you have many more where life is a struggle.
The point is that there’s no such thing as “African city”: there are cities in Africa
They have vast differences