IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Going by the tagline “Building the African Internet,” the company is mainly known for launching Africa’s first broadband submarine cable system along the eastern and southern coastlines in 2009. This year’s initiatives revolve mainly around ICT and social development. Community projects across Africa are being carried out in an effort to further the company’s social investment programme in the name of Foundation Day.

The ICT sector has possibly the most to gain in an African economic boom, as ICTs underpin every development initiative in every industry. Connectivity in particular, is crucial for development. From agriculture and education to enterprise development, ICT is a crucial factor in modernising and optimising every sector.

And because nobody understands Africa like Africa itself, African ICT companies should be expanding across borders to deliver relevant solutions that support overall social and economic growth and development. Yet, we are seeing many African ICT players slow off the mark, hesitant to expand into neighbouring countries and losing the ICT market share race to major international players.

The recommendation follows a round-table discussion, attended by high-level politicians and leaders from Africa and Europe, during the fifth EU-Africa Business Forum, which took place in Brussels last week.

Christine Leurquin, VP, institutional relations, SES, chaired the panel, "Creating partnerships to bring e-schools to rural Africa: Offering incubator-backed seed and early-stage funding", which discussed how a lack of connectivity in Africa remains a key bottleneck to development.

"There is still an ongoing process to identify personnel to be trained and work with the Indians (engineers) noting that they are only supporting the project for five years in terms of equipment and human resource," said Health and Sanitation Minister Sheku Tejan Koroma last week while briefing journalists on the current state of the Telemedicine Project -- the part of the broader pan-African plan in which Sierra Leone is participating.

The progress in smart city development highlights the immense potential for African cities to become global leaders in urban innovation.

This is according to an industry executive following the inclusion of Algiers (Algeria), Cairo (Egypt), Cape Town (South Africa), Rabat (Morocco) and the Tunisian capital, Tunis, in the 2023 edition of the IMD Smart City Index.

“They’re putting Africa on the global map of smart city innovation,” said Marcel Bruyns, Sales Manager for Africa at Axis Communications.

Africa has joined the fray with Nairobi, Cairo, Pretoria, Kinshasa, Accra, Kigali and Lagos embracing a range of smart applications in traffic management, parking, cashless payments,

Smart cities use data and technology to create efficiencies, improve sustainability, enhance quality of life and promote economic growth and development.

Africa’s urban population is booming. At 3.5% per year, the continent’s urban growth rate is the highest in the developing world over the last twenty years. Within the next twenty, research suggests that every second person in Africa will live in a town or a city, bringing the urban population to around 926 million people.

Within the decade, it is also predicted that six of the world’s 41 megacities (cities with a population of over 10 million people), will be on African soil, including Cairo, Lagos, and Kinshasa, soon to be joined by Johannesburg, Luanda, and Dar es Salaam.

Mastercard, technology company in the global payments industry, continues to champion the fundamental role of smart cities in enabling a more connected and inclusive future for Africa. The company reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the development of smart cities through meaningful partnerships with both the public and private sector at the recent World Cities Summit in Singapore, where Mastercard was a patron sponsor.

In recent years, the African continent has been quietly but resolutely advancing a new narrative in urban growth—one where Smart Cities are no longer just futuristic buzzwords, but practical, tangible transformations unfolding across the continent. Equipped with sensors, big‑data, artificial intelligence and renewable energy systems, cities from Lagos to Kigali are leveraging technology to reshape how people live, move, work and play.

The development of smart cities in Africa is on the rise. This is a result of the acceleration of urbanization across the continent through the emergence of growing economies that are advancing the African renaissance dream.

These smart cities are integrating technology within urban planning, infrastructure development and the overall governance system to enhance efficiency, sustainability and quality of life for all civilizations.

The rate of Urbanization in Africa rose from fifteen percent in 1960 to forty percent in 2010, it is even expected to reach sixty percent by 2050. In this context, Africans are discussing how smart cities technologies can be involved to facilitate and improve living conditions. Countries across the continent are aiming at developing smart cities to use greener energy in their daily routine.

Laying the scene for smart cities

Our continent has the most rural areas on earth, with only 40% of its population living in cities. However, the continent is expected to be the fastest urbanized continent by the year of 2020. How will this be possible without robust infrastructure?

The terms smart cities and sustainability are becoming intertwined.

Planning for smart cities involves implementing eco-friendly projects that can improve the quality of life within a space while also still respecting the environment.

A sustainable smart city is considered to be innovative.

Internet of things infrastructure opens the door to technological innovation from the private sector, says IoT.nxt.

Africa, along with the rest of the world, is currently charging through the fourth industrial revolution. Society is beginning to be reshaped by the smart use of information and technology. One of the most apparent examples of this change is the acceleration of the implementation of the Internet of things (IOT).

A report that compiles research findings on the implementation of AI-powered surveillance systems in 11 African countries has warned that nations deploying such systems risk collapsing into digital authoritarianism if certain safeguards are not quickly put in place.

The report by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), published this month, examines the deployment of surveillance systems aided by Chinese technology in Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The focus was on surveillance systems that monitor public spaces through facial or vehicle number plate recognition.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has just released its 2018 Ibrahim Forum Report: Public Service in Africa.

This Report will inform the discussion of the 2018 Ibrahim Forum taking place in Kigali, Rwanda, on Saturday 28 April. The Forum will focus on Public Service in Africa: its key relation to good governance and effective leadership, new challenges and current shortcomings, and the ways and means to strengthen it and make it appealing to the next generation.

The cable has simultaneously launched in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda on July 23. It is widely seen to be opening up opportunities for governments and business to use the network as a platform to compete globally and drive economic growth.

Charles Mbogori, the executive director of the East African Business Council, says e-government builds accountability by eliminating gatekeepers and standardising service delivery.