RICS Summit Africa 2018

These are exciting times at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and being a global member of the RICS, as the institution celebrates its 150th anniversary. The timely RICS Summit Africa 2018 was insightful, thought provoking, engaging and enjoyable with a focus on smart urbanism paired with infrastructure right on top of the agenda and rightfully so. The Summit is on its 4th year going from strength to strength, uniting all the key players under one roof for an integrated, diverse and inclusive platform for debating the key issues affecting the built environment in African countries. Unquestionably, the global trend towards increased urbanisation in the continent shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, it is still accelerating and chartered surveyors are well placed to make a positive difference and shape the continent. The challenges are huge but so are the opportunities given sub-saharan africa’s population is projected to double to 2 billion within a generation by 2045 and that more than half of Africans will be living in cities.

The Summit provided great networking opportunity with fellow chartered surveyors, academics, thought leaders, business leaders, policy makers and other key influencers across the continent. The summit was hosted and moderated by the charming, entertaining and highly energetic Gugu Cele. The CEO of RICS, Sean Tompkins kicked off the summit with challenges faced by cities and professionals being at the forefront of the built environment revolution and change. Undoubtedly, resilience is key and doing nothing is not an option.

“The built environment that we all touch, touches every person, every nation and every business” as stated by Sean.

We are on the cusp of a pretty rapid change and no doubt this is a call for greater international collaboration for an improved industry. Working together for a creative and collaborative future is an absolute enabler for countries in Africa. Sean touched on global disruption, on how business models are being demolished by small companies and market redefined as well as key areas discussed; leadership, automation, population growth, rapid urbanisation, resource scarcity, climate change, smart technology and infrastructure.

Sean further added that access to local financing of infrastructure is not keeping pace with rising population and that poor access to finance is a key stumbling block when cities are striving to develop transport, housing stocks and utilities. Public Private Partnership (PPP) could be a way forward for infrastructural projects whereby chartered surveyors can bring enormous amount of value. From a sustainable viewpoint, Sean underlined that cities are to work in harmony with the environment, providing green spaces, carbon positive infrastructure and garden buildings. Now more than ever, renewable technologies are paramount to decentralisation of power production, distribution and to meet realistic climate targets as cities are faced with hotter, wetter and wilder weather. When it comes to education and the war on talent, Sean rightly pointed out that it is vital that built environment professionals are to be intellectually curious, adaptable, agile and always innovate to form intelligent places. In African countries, a diverse and inclusive workforce is absolutely crucial, fully trained and equipped working to international standards and ethical requirements. Finally, as quoted by Sean, professionalism is the key to unlocking the sustainable future of the sub-saharan African cities.

Key themes discussed during the summit were macroeconomic forecast for Africa, inclusive growth and sustainable development in Africa, powering cities and empowering citizens, smart cities in Kenya and Botswana, improved approaches to project feasibility, funding and procurement models, emerging technologies and improved workplaces, sustainable facilities management, intra-regional trade, transparency and ethics. Last but by no means least, the key word of the day was “prosumerism”, happy googling!

The Summit has reinforced that we have a global challenge to meet demand and continue to move people safely, comfortably, quickly, efficiently and cost effectively and that RICS members are right at the heart of it being the leading global professional body in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. Thank You RICS South Africa - The Summit was a resounding success!