This presentation eas given at Digital Africa 2016 in a session on Smart Cities. Its underlying argument is that you have to know how to create a livable city and the infrastructure to make it work. It concludes by offering some Smart City ideas that may work in Africa.

1. Building A Smarter Africa
– one city at a time
Russell Southwood
CEO, Balancing Act
www.balancingact-africa.com
@balancingactafr

2. The Human Factor and
Leapfrogging
 Smart cities – Can Africa leapfrog its current city problems by
introducing Smart City technologies?
 You can leapfrog technologies but not human behavior,
culture and processes
 If the analogue services are not there, you can’t retrofit smart
digital solutions
 Attitudes to maintenance – the economy of waste

3. Cities as the engines of wealth
creation
 Africa’s population to double by 2050. 80% of that growth will
be in cities.
 5 fastest growing cities: Lagos (77 people per hour);
Kinshasa (61 people per hour); Cairo (44 people per hour);
Luanda (43 people per hour) and Ougadougou (23 people
per hour)
 Lagos’ Makoko – slum on the water of 250,000 people.
Khayeltisha, Cape Town: around 400,000; 40% under 19
years old. Mathare, Nairobi: 500,000
 But cities are places that generate wealth and employment

4. What makes a livable city?
 Dynamic city economy that generates jobs
 Clean, green and sustainable
 Inclusive – Everybody gets to be part of it and is looked after
 Engaged – Everyone involved in planning what the city will
be
 Able to move easily around the city
 Creative and learning – Bubbles with ideas and values
education
 Safe and attractive public spaces to meet and linger in
 Whatever your income level, enjoyable to live in

5. Getting the infrastructure right
 Connectivity – Reliable
fibre everywhere and
pervasive Wi-Fi hot
Spots, cheap or free
 Transport – Mass
Transit systems (Nairobi,
Joburg, Addis Ababa)
 Energy and Utilities
 Service delivery
 Low cost housing

6. Innovation and the Creative City
 Innovation in the public sector at State and city level
 Partnerships between private sector and city (IBM, Ericsson,
Huawei) IBM Research: Abidjan and Nairobi mobile data
 Partnerships between start-up sector and city: Accra Trotro
Apps Challenge – MEST and Accra Metropolitan Assembly.
Data on 300 active routes. ccHub #BuildforMyCity hackathon
in Abuja
 Partnerships between academia and the city
 Creative cities: Lagos, Cairo, Cape Town
 But not just about production but how the city looks and feels

7. The Underlying Tech
Architecture
 Municipal Wi-Fi? – Free hot-spots - Knysna; Tshwane
(Project Isizwe)
 Open data and frameworks to use city data (eg transport,
services, budgets)
 Feedback mechanisms (citizens able to say what they think
of service and something gets done) – BudgIT; Search for
Common Ground (SMS reporting on Police in Liberia);
Yowzit, South Africa (rating public services)
 Access points for students (universities, colleges and
schools); for low income citizens through libraries and citizen
service delivery points
 Co-working spaces and incubators for tech and creatives

8. Inclusion – Digital + Analogue
 World Bank World Development Report 2016 Digital Dividends
– Findings:” When the analog complements are absent, the
development impact will be disappointing. But when countries
build a strong analog foundation, they will reap ample digital
dividends—in faster growth, more jobs, and better services.”
 Hudumu Centres, Nairobi: A random visit to the Nairobi Huduma
Centre for IT support in filling out tax return forms revealed the
demand for services is much greater than the supply – 250
citizens and only 3 desks to provide the service. It was worse at
the Identification cards platform, where there were 400 citizens
and only 5 desks”.
 Girls Coding teaching young girls in Makoko. Bandwidth Barn
facility in Kayalitsha

9. Smart City elements that might
work
 Kigali Smart Bus Initiative – Collection of cash and “revenue
leakage”
 Bus arrivals data
 City identity and payments systems
 Street lighting – Reduce energy by 80% if combine LED
replacement bulbs with network controlled monitoring
 CCTV and security
 Distributed power through micro-grids (connected by IoT)