The term “smart city” is being used more and more frequently and that numerous projects bearing this label are emerging across the continent. Despite this, uncertainty still exists regarding what exactly a smart city is and, moreover, why and how it should be developed. This is especially true given that several terms that are closely related are frequently used interchangeably. Many people exclude themselves from smart city concept because they consider it as something that only belongs to others by conflating the “smart city” with “digital city,” “connected city,” or “city where everything is handled by the latest high technologies.”

This article aims to clarify the meaning of the word “smart” in the context of African cities through an approach based on an in-depth literature review of relevant studies as well as official documents from international institutions. It also identifies the main dimensions and elements characterising a smart city. Finally, it also gives us some guidance on why African cities should opt for smart city strategies as a solution to several urban challenges in our context and the need for training to make smart city projects successful on the continent.

1. What is a smart city?

There are many definitions of “smart cities” which can vary from one context to another. It is a new paradigm with a series of conceptual variants, often obtained by replacing ‘smart’ with other adjectives such as ‘intelligent’ or ‘digital’ or ‘connected’. The label ‘smart city’ is sometimes a vague concept and therefore often used inconsistently. However, there is no single definition of a smart city, nor is there a single model for it.

Thus many see the smart city as “a city with intensive and advanced high technology that connects citizens and shares information to meet its challenges”.

Others consider the smart city as “a city that attempts to improve urban performance by using data and information technology (IT) to provide more efficient services to citizens, to monitor and optimise existing infrastructure, to increase collaboration between different economic actors and to foster innovative business models in the private and public sectors”.

This second definition according to which smart city transition initiatives would be adaptable to all African cities through smart actions on the 6 main dimensions: economy, citizen, governance, mobility, environment and smart life.

•  Why opt for a smart city in an African city strategy?

There are several reasons for opting for smart city initiatives in Africa:

• African cities are experiencing the strongest demographic growth (estimated at 60% in 2030 and 70% in 2050 by UN-Habitat), urban transformations favoured by several factors, including the proportion of young people who are mostly connected and the technological breakthrough. According to the World Bank, the growth of African cities will be at the heart of the continent’s development. The African continent has enormous potential for technology with 45% of the population having a smart phone and the internet economy could be worth $180 billion by 2025.
• African cities are younger and more flexible than cities in developed countries, and African metropolises are less constrained by the weight of existing infrastructure.  As a result, they have many opportunities to develop projects with high technological potential, such as the direct transition to mobile and fibre optics and the installation of Smart Grids for their energy management.
• The city of tomorrow will have to rethink its development strategy, not only through more efficient and effective existing public services, but also through the connection of citizens, objects and infrastructures in the city. It must therefore reflect on and anticipate the choice of the type of connectivity and the methods of citizen data feedback. This reflection will be necessary, because it will be necessary to explain the choices to citizens.
• In the coming years, Africa will generate even more data because of the strong technological breakthrough and the many citizen initiatives that are emerging in several countries. This data will certainly make it possible to create new intelligent solutions thanks to artificial intelligence to put it at the service of city users.

Because of the geography, history and culture of each city, there is no single model for a smart city in Africa. Different projects are being set up in different cities, and every year multinationals convinced of the continent’s growth potential get involved in ambitious projects alongside African cities.

• Smart city in Africa 

Faced with urban problems in Africa, initiatives are emerging to implement new smart city projects that must overcome intrinsic challenges that hinder their success. These smart city projects are often planned either by transforming existing cities (Kigali, Accra, Cape town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, etc) or creating new cities (Tangier med, Semè city, Diamniadio, Akon City, Konza, etc).

However, these projects, which are most often modelled on Western models and implemented without any real consideration of local realities, are struggling to be carried out successfully and therefore to meet African urban challenges. It is therefore necessary to establish the role and strategies of smart cities in relation to the African context, as a driver of sustainable and resilient urban development in Africa. This requires the training and retraining of actors in the planning and management of these projects on the definition and implementation of smart city strategies in Africa.  This need is manifested today by a tangible and growing demand from highly qualified African urban actors, experts and researchers on the theme of Smart Cities on the African continent. This is particularly visible in all areas of digital transformation of the continent, especially in remote sensing by drones, the use of artificial intelligence, inclusion and citizen participation, sustainable resource management, environmental protection, resilience, open data both for urban planning but also as a technology for smart city strategies adapted to the African context.

• Need for training and capacity building of African smart city specialists

Training in both engineering and social and human sciences related to the African smart city appears to be a central link in its development on the continent. As Jérôme Chenal once stated in Benin in his intervention on the Sèmè City megaproject as a trainer: “Smart cities require skills that are somewhat different from those of conventional urban planning,” he points out. It will therefore be necessary to massively train engineers in the field of digital urban planning and urban systems, so that they are capable of managing this digital and technological minefield. Smart city experts such as Mohammed El Kettani also believe that training African engineers and specialists on a large scale and in quality would lead to the creation of African smart solutions that could be inspired by developed economies, “without copying and pasting”, and that would strengthen the resilience, inclusiveness and sustainability of African cities.

By Stephane KOUMETIO

Postdoctoral Researcher – CUS-Center of Urban Systems