Q&A session with Dr. Chris Kirubi, Centum Investment Group
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The document discusses the complexities of urbanization in Africa, emphasizing the need for collaboration among various stakeholders, including governments, private sectors, and urban planners, to address challenges such as infrastructure growth and service lag. It highlights the importance of local solutions tailored to cultural needs, public-private partnerships, and the role of young entrepreneurs in driving innovation and opportunities. Furthermore, the document underscores the necessity for transparency and accountability in urbanization efforts to overcome systemic issues like corruption and ethnic favoritism.
Q&A session with Dr. Chris Kirubi, Centum Investment Group
- 1. 1. Who is leading the urbanization process: politics, economics, urbanists, sociologists, scientists or creatives? @hansatmecity In many African countries you could say it’s the Urbanists (mostly existing in International Orga- nizations) and Economics that push the Urbaniza- tion agenda. However, not one group is capable of doing this alone. Urbanisation is created by various situations and growths. Whilst we encourage growth, we must simultaneously ensure services and infrastructure are capable to withstand growth. Therefore we must collaborate in our efforts to realize and sus- tain ourselves and are in need all these arms. In such a world, where we are becoming global citizens, we should realise the need for collabora- tion between various professions to ensure holistic and suitable endeavours. 2. What have you Kirubi identified as the biggest african urbanisation challenge and what solutions can you suggest? @DrTreasurer Growth of infrastructure and services (water, secu- rity, transport, health, wastewater management, and aesthetics, among others) is lagging behind therefore not enabling us to embrace globaliza- tion as we should. As Centum this is something we are trying to accomplish in Kenya and East Africa. Partnerships with the Government are es- sential for this and we promote teaming up with as many capable people to do and increase the general level of capacity of Kenyans. We need to step away from the notion of North- South dependency and find local solutions that adhere to our culture and possibilities and needs. African Governments need to create more local partnerships by partnering with Private Sectors and local people in order to push the Urbanization Agenda, whilst learning from mistakes of complete privatisation but find a balance that works for the context we are in. 3. Govts seem ill prepared as development sprawls in a planning vacuum. What’s the business sector doing about this? @hoseaomole The business sector led by the Private Sector is really stepping in to bridge this gap. We see many Private Sector representatives accompa- nying Government officials as advisors to key in- vestment and developmental forums. Collabora- tive measures such as public private partnerships are in place now more than ever, but we also need the private sector and other stakeholders to align their agendas to the welfare of the state and build and plan within its boundaries. @africaceoforum QA session with Dr. Chris Kirubi, Centum Investment Group
- 2. QA session with Dr. Chris Kirubi, Centum Investment Group 4. What do we need to put in place to ensure this urbanization doesn’t cannibalize other sectors that fund the economy? @wawendo We just need to understand that what every stakeholder is working towards; the development of an economy or the country is more or less under the umbrella of urbanization. Urbanization in my view cannot cannibalize any other sector. At the end of the day, we wish for majority of the African people to live in urban settlements have good access to infrastructure, water and sanitation and all this constitutes development. 5. Should the role of urban planners be emphasized in order to achieve ‘sustainable urbanization’? @jaywatene YES, most definitely. Urban Planners act as cata- lysts, drivers of change, motivators, facilitators, therapists and much more than technical planners. It is important to understand their role in order to achieve sustainability and I wish African countries could take them more seriously. Town planning in the past has been done primarily by Engineers and Architects, I wish now them to collaborate with planners in order to address the social side to upgrading and the built environment. Let us start developing for the people by the people and this is done by Urban Planners. 6. Can African govts sustain infrastructure growth (devlpmnt maintenance) to match this urbanization? @Zeddy_M It is possible, however, currently I believe the Public Private Partenrships (PPPs) can streng- then and speed this up as well as appropriate political partnerships. I would like to stress col- laboration at all levels, from grassroots, civil society to Government. We should first look at what we want, ie look at the Masterplans (that have been produced with you and by you due to you participation) and following that, all in- frastructure will fit into the appropriate plans leaving us to now create opportunities for local people and partnerships with the neces- sary suppliers whilst harnessing the locally pro- duced materials. 7. What role do you think will startup car firms like @ MobiusMotors, offering cheap mobility, play? @yannick_beyer Nairobi’s issue is not the lack of cars on the roads, but the lack of efficient and safe public transport. Start-ups are encouraged, however they need to fill a niche or a gap and not add on to the current is- sues. The question is, are start-ups like Mobius Mo- tors willing to bridge the gap in public transport?
- 3. QA session with Dr. Chris Kirubi, Centum Investment Group 8. What’s the greatest opportunity presented by African Urbanisation? @symowain Young entrepreneurs and innovators are the biggest opportunity. Africa is full of wealth, we have social innovators, strategic investments and partnerships, great local ideas and solu- tions for local problems that just need to be enhanced on a larger scale…. We need to look at Africa as a blank canvas- we can achieve anything as long as we research, experiment and do it right (not make the same mistakes as the West). 9. How can we make sure that we overcome the challenges of lack of transparency accountability in urbanization? @fred_cheruiyot Systems need to be in place, Government poli- cies on awarding of tenders, putting up of struc- tures, international investments and partnerships need to be strengthened. On the other hand, it is equally important to motivate and reward government employees based on market rates so as to lower the rate of corruption. We also need to find a way of sorting out ethnicity/tribal issues that face many African countries. This particularly in the urban setting can hinder growth whereby one group feels that they ‘own’ a particular city and carry out most of the ‘big’ business transactions. 10.Does urbanization pose a great threat to our economy given that it’s rural-based-economy, agriculture? @le_njiru Why should it when done well? It’s a transfor- mation of everything; the economy, people’s livelihoods, politics….meaning even the way we farm will change for the good of the country and its people. Technology in agriculture is the future including finding new ways to farm, to combat diseases, food security etc. 11.With the devolved governance, what are the roles played by the major stakeholders to move urbanisation to the rural setting? @petergicharu5 It’s very simple, by partnering with the leaders in the various rural towns to enhance development and urbanization. We need to de-congest our cities and that is if we can cultivate the culture of urbanization and participate in it. Devolution means decentralization. We need to move Nairobi from being the centre of eve- rything and begin urbanizing and enriching other towns in Kenya.