Smart cities in Africa: Nairobi and Cape Town

Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Andres de Wet

Smart cities leverage on technology and use the large amount of data their citizens
generate every second to optimise resources, to connect people and to improve
business and trading. A smart city targets energy savings and adopts environmentally-
friendly technologies, which helps promoting sustainable development.

Nairobi and Cape Town rank among the most advanced cities on the African continent on the
smart city front. Nairobi, capital of Kenya and home to over three million people, won the
title of Most Intelligent City in Africa for two years in a row. Going south, Cape Town
blossoms as one of the best places to do business in the continent as the South
African government continuously implements thoughtful planning and cutting edge
technology to attract businesses and improve the lives of its citizens. Both Nairobi and Cape
Town look at Singapore as a role model for the city of the future.

What makes a city smart? An example in Singapore

There are infinite possibilities. Street lights can gather and send information on the traffic in
real time and send information on whether there is an empty parking spot to drivers looking
to park in the area. Sensors installed in the light posts can turn lights on and off, depending
on whether there is movement in the surrounding areas. It can also promptly send
information to hospitals and to the police about car accidents and robberies. Smart roads can
send information on traffic and road accidents to drivers and suggest a better route; and
traffic lights can adjust to regulate traffic flows and prevent traffic jams (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 – What makes a city smart?

Another example is on waste collection. Waste containers can inform the waste collection
company when they are full. Weather sensors can manage automatic watering systems for
green areas and detect leaks. A range of sensors can also provide information on air
pollution, noise and river levels that could be used to prevent floods.

However, smart cities are not simply urban areas dotted with sensors and other high-tech
gadgets. A smart city starts at the planning stage. The Housing & Development Board (HDB)
from Singapore is creating the Punggol Eco-Town in the northeast part of the Singapore
island. The area was modelled in 3D before any construction was put in place. With that,
architects were able to predict the wind flow in the area and make adaptations on the
buildings so that zones further from the shore would still get good air flow, hence minimising
the use of air conditioners.

The 3D modelling was also used to generate a shadow analysis of the town, predicting how
shadows would change from morning to night. This helped architects and planners to find
the best locations for parks, playgrounds and outdoor areas such as dining locations and
plazas. Child care centres would be built in areas with low sun light so that children can play
outside the whole day. Knowing which areas get most of the sun light is also useful when
deciding where to place greeneries and solar panels.

In large urban centres, taking care of the elderly can be helped through the use of smart
devices. Also in Singapore, a set of movement sensors installed in the houses of senior people
record their daily routine and can send a signal to the caretaker or to a family member in
case the sensors identify that the elderly’s normal routine was interrupted. This can be
complemented by heart beat and heart pressure sensors that can help early diagnoses and
provide a better care for the elderly.

The elderly can also benefit from remote applications that connect them, from their home,
to physiotherapy practitioners over video-call apps like Skype. The doctor can, from the
other end of the call, show how to execute physiotherapy exercise routines. This would save
the elderly the hassle of going to the hospital every time.

Singapore is not only thriving in becoming one of the smartest cities in the world, but it is
also exporting expertise. Singapore-based information and communication technologies
(ICT) company CrimsonLogic, has turned its attention to Africa for more than two decades.
After opening an office in Mauritius in 1994, the company started a steady expansion across
the continent. Today CrimsonLogic is also present in Kenya, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa
and Ghana. Mike Yap, senior director for Africa, explains his company’s main goal: “Our
solutions streamline processes to bring efficiency to public administration, reduce the cost
of compliance/consumption for citizens and businesses, and improve economic
competitiveness across countries.”

The progress of spreading smart technology in Africa also depends on coordination with
local governments: “African governments need to address and leverage on connectivity in a
digital economy. One thing that had it going for Africa is the great mobile connectivity and
the relatively cheap cost of using mobile data. Countries such as Kenya are taking the lead
with mobile money and payment, and building infrastructure to support the digital
economy”, says Francis Huan, head of Corporate Communications at CrimsonLogic.

Nairobi

Nairobi, capital of Kenya, is replicating the steps Singapore followed on becoming a smart
city. For two subsequent years, Nairobi was awarded the title of most intelligent city in
Africa. The award was created by the Intelligent Community Forum, a think-tank devoted to
study how ICT can tackle social and governmental challenges to improve lives in urban areas.

Not only Nairobi, but Kenya as a whole saw its ICT sector grow steadily over the past decade.
The number of mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people has jumped from 13.5 to 81.9
between 2005 and 2015, surpassing the regional average of 74.6 mobile cellular
subscriptions per 100 people (see Figure 2). The figure also shows that sub-Saharan Africa
in general demonstrated a significant increase in mobile cellular subscriptions.

Figure 2 – Number of mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people – Kenya and sub-Sahara
Africa average
The network generated by the diffusion of mobile phone usage in Kenya created
opportunities for unique businesses to flourish. The country has become the world leader in
the use of mobile phones for money transfer. The business filled a gap that was not being
successfully explored by local banks. The bank grid has a smaller reach and charges higher
fees for simple money transfers. Safaricom did not miss the opportunity and became a game
changer in Kenya.

In 2007, it launched M-Pesa, a mobile money system that allows people to transfer money
and pay bills. Currently two thirds of Kenya’s population use this service, transacting around
US$28bn, or 44% of the country’s GDP, in 2015 , through a network of over 40,000 Safaricom
agents. In Kenya, over 58% of the population use mobile phones for money transfer, and
Africa largely adopted the use of e-wallets (see Figure 3). The World Bank estimated that in
2014, more than 11.5% of the people living in sub-Saharan Africa had used mobile phones
for money transactions.
Figure 3 – Percentage of population using smartphones for money transfer
Safaricom had a very different plan for M-Pesa at its early stages. The company created the
platform as a means to allow microfinance-loan repayments to be made by phone. The
electronic way of moving money would save on costs related to handling cash, allowing for
lower interest rates. The company soon realised that M-Pesa’s scope could be broadened to
become a general money-transfer scheme.

A client that wants to use M-Pesa to transfer money would register his account and go to one
of the thousands of corner shops that are registered with Safaricom and make a cash deposit.
For withdrawing the money, the client just needs to go to another Safaricom-affiliated agent,
who checks his account’s available funds and hands over the cash, after making adjustments
on the new account balance. The money can also be transferred to other M-Pesa users, while
the system allows companies to pay their employees and to receive customers’ payments.

M-Pesa inspired many entrepreneurs to focus on the tech industry and proactively launch
start-ups. In 2010, Nairobi invested further into fostering innovation by creating the iHub, a
tech incubation centre where developers and entrepreneurs can connect and work side by
side. By 2015, iHub spawned 150 start-ups and had created more than 1,300 jobs.

On the wake of development, Konza City, located 60km from Nairobi’s centre, is being built
to become the African version of the Silicon Valley, or Silicon Savanah, as it is also called.

Konza City will look like a small town. Its 50 km2 will house up to 260,000 inhabitants and
will have the infrastructure of a complete city: a university campus, schools, hospitals and a
space dedicated for tech companies. The $14.5bn project is almost entirely privately funded
and is expected to be completed by the early 2020s. More than 20,000 direct and indirect
jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase. Konza City is intended to be
a world-class technology hub, home to leading companies in education, life sciences,
telecoms and information technology.

The city will not only be the new home for blooming tech companies in Kenya, but it will also
be a smart city itself. It will gather data from smart devices and sensors embedded in the
urban environment, such as roadways, buildings, and other assets. Roadway sensors will be
able to monitor pedestrian and automobile traffic, and adjust traffic light timings accordingly
to optimise traffic flows. Konza City will be connected to Nairobi through a high-speed train.
People working and living in Konza will have access to a range of real-time data-driven
material, such as traffic maps, emergency warnings, and detailed information describing
energy and water consumption.

Cape Town

Cape Town is South Africa’s second-largest city by population and the capital of the Western
Cape. The metropolis’ economy revolves around tourism, manufacturing, finance, IT,
and transport and logistics. The city’s government has established a four-pillar project
towards reaching the smart city status: digital infrastructure, digital inclusion, e-government
and digital economy.

On the forefront of innovative technology is the Cape Town Emergency Dispatch Centre, the
nerve system of the city. The Centre uses resource planning software SAP to create one
integrated public safety solution that facilitates operations and data sharing. The data is used
for fire and rescue, traffic, metro police, law enforcement, disaster risk management, and its
investigative unit.

The city also implemented a remote utilities meter reading, which eliminated manual data-
capture errors. By electronically capturing consumption data, the government can better
plan how to invest new resources in the city. The metering system has helped to reduce
water usage and energy consumption by 10%. The city also installed solar heaters in 10% of
private homes.

All the data Cape Town registers from its citizens is publicly available through the open data
portal website. This enhances transparency and promotes the use of the city’s data for
broader social and economic benefits. The city currently offers 86 datasets for download.
Local universities, research institutions, innovation centres, start-ups and government
agencies constitute the main users of the free database.

An example of this is the IBM Fire Management Portal. IBM took fire incident data from the
Cape Town open data platform and overlaid it with historical weather maps from IBM’s own
weather portal. The system can predict fire incidents of high and extreme risk incredibly
well. The output from the algorithm helps officials prepare for emergency responses.

In the past two years, Cape Town spent close to $15m in the ICT sector. The Western Cape
Government added $1m to fund broadband infrastructure, and $2m to the Digital Inclusion
Project, which promotes access to services over the internet and training adults in basic
computer skills.

By the end of 2016, Cape Town had installed 72 public wifi hotspots. By 2018, the city aims
to reach one hotspot in each of the province’s 384 municipal wards. These advances in Cape
Town are supported by the large investments in growing the fibre optic infrastructure for
high-speed broadband. By February this year, the fibre optic network of Cape Town reached
a length of 848km.

Cape Town also embarked fully on e-government initiatives. Currently Cape Town’s citizens
can pay all utility bills using the internet, apply for municipal services, licenses and permits,
report a crime or emergency, request municipal service or maintenance, among other things.
It provides a wide set of services that can be completed from the comfort of one’s home or
office.

Cape Town is home to a range of interesting smartphone apps connecting citizens and the
city. Launched in 2014, WhereIsMyTransport (WIMT) is a platform that integrates
information about fares, frequency and routes from informal transportation modes to
regular ones like BRT, bus, and rail. The data is publicly available to anyone who wants to
build an app or website.

In April 2016, Taxify was established as stiff competition for Uber in Cape Town. It provides
a similar platform, connecting drivers to passengers. However, it gained market share from
Uber by offering a better support service, not only for the passengers, but also for the drivers,
and by increasing the compensation earned by the drivers in comparison to Uber’s.

Conclusion

All successful smart cities benefit from the monetisation of municipal services. It can range
from installing paid parking meters, to collecting public macro-data such as car parking
spaces, congestion, bins, energy and water use, satellite imagery, population density, and
crime statistics. The data is then converted into useable information, accessible through
subscriptions.
The success of smart cities also depends on governments implementing the right policies.
Singapore benefits from a close cooperation between government and the business world.
The city-state has reached a pinnacle of development and integration that serves as a model
for what Nairobi and Cape Town can soon become.

The author, Otavio Veras, is a Research Associate of the NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies, a
trilateral platform for government, business and academia to promote knowledge and
expertise on Africa, established by Nanyang Technological University and the Singapore
Business Federation. Otavio can be reached at overas@ntu.edu.sg.