Town planners want smart cities in Nigeria

Last year, the Lagos State Government and the City of Dubai entered into a partnership foe Lagos to emerge as the first Smart City in Africa. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Lagos Smart City was signed at the Emirate Towers, Dubai, by the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Adeniji Kazeem […]

Last year, the Lagos State Government and the City of Dubai entered into a partnership foe Lagos to emerge as the first Smart City in Africa.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Lagos Smart City was signed at the Emirate Towers, Dubai, by the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Adeniji Kazeem and the Chief Executive Officer of Smart City Dubai LLC, Jabber Bin Hafez.

The event was witnessed by the Chairman of Dubai Holdings, Ahmad Bin Byat, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister and the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode.

A smart city, according to Wikipedia, is an urban development vision to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet of things (IoT) technology in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets. 

Lagos State said it wanted  to draw from the successes of Dubai’s knowledge-based industry clusters to empower business growth for companies.

Governor Ambode said the Smart City (Lagos) was expected to bring multi-billion dollar investments to the state, create thousands of jobs and transform the Ibeju-Lekki axis in particular and the entire state in general.

The governor said the collaboration was part of the larger vision to make Lagos safer, cleaner and more prosperous.

He said: “A Smart City Lagos will be the pride of all Lagosians just as we have Smart City Dubai, Smart-City Malta and Smart City Kochi (India). We are encouraged by the fact that we do not, as a government, need to develop at a slow pace, but take full advantage of the digital age and fast-track development of Lagos to a real megalopolis that we can all be proud of.

“The future is ours to take. It also marks the first smart city in Africa when completed.”

The governor added that the project would also become the world’s first carbon neutral city.

“Lagos will become an important centre for innovation in smart technologies, wellness and destination for green tourism,” he said. 

The popularity of the smart city concept led to the “Smart Cities Nigeria 2017”  conference held in  Abuja on August 8 and 9, 2017, to provide a common forum for stakeholders in Nigeria to discuss and deliberate some of the most challenging issues and upcoming technologies towards the development of smart cities in the country.

Experts at the conference identified solutions, made proposals and developed key innovations towards the establishment of smart cities in Nigeria.

An expert, Mr. Chuks Okpaka, the Country Managing Director of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Nigeria Limited, said a smart city is where the city’s critical infrastructures, networks and services are made more efficient through optimized digital and telecommunication technologies.  

He said the smart city concept would mean smarter urban transport, upgraded water supply, better commuting facilities, and more efficient ways to light and heat buildings.

On Thursday,  the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Abuja chapter, to mark its  2017 Town Planners week, organised an event ‘Making Abuja a Smart City’.

Presenting a paper entitled ‘Transformation of Abuja into a Smart City: Potentials and Challenges’, Kabir M. Yari, UN  Habitat Programme Manager, said smart cities’ adoption would improve urban efficiency by managing various city flows that deliver services to citizens such as water and sanitation, energy and traffic information.

Yari said that smart cities would optimize the use of limited resources and enhance better information, understanding and management of city operation. 

He said the smart cities idea is the most viable option for the future which Nigeria must key into to achieve modern infrastructural growth.

He said the FCT is currently using smart city initiative in FCT Abuja Technology Village through compact-mixed use development and the Centenary City Green City which has E-waste management, smart water and water recycling, independent power and smart grid.

In his presentation, Professor J.B. Kaltho of Urban and Regional Planning Department, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, said cities like London, Amsterdam and Santader (Spain) adopted smart cities technology and have benefited immensely from it.

He said, “Santader has connected numerous buildings, infrastructure networks, transport, to register land uses and developers for various purposes such as traffic and parking, energy use, pollution, etc. 

He enjoined cities like Abuja and Lagos that have keyed into the smart cities initiative  “to  put the projects at the scale of knowledge and not build on high-tech smart city applications in order not to exclude most city residents and make the city unfriendly and not cost effective.”