[size=14pt]Booming Lagos, Smart City - MIT Technology Review
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An African mega-city bets on technology and its native entrepreneurs to meet the many challenges of its population boom.


For Lagos, Nigeria, Africa’s biggest city, any push to become a smart city will have to adapt to constant—and often unplanned—growth.

Its challenges are epic. The United Nations predicts that Lagos’s population—which the U.N. estimates at 12.6 million today, though other estimates are as high as 22 million—will almost double between now and 2030, greatly adding to demands on already strained services.

Can this city, where the poorest live in fetid floating slums, absorb another 12 million souls? “Keeping up with the state’s growing appetite for services and resources is a Herculean and continuous process,” acknowledges Lagos state governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. “The need to deploy innovative approaches that address civic challenges in Lagos state has never been greater, and technology is the key to the future.”

As Lagos lays out its vision for becoming a smarter city, international IT companies are vying for its business, betting that technology and data will be the keys to its evolution. Mobile phones, extraordinarily popular on the African continent, are expected to lead the way.

Its challenges are epic. Can this city, where the poorest live in fetid floating slums, absorb another 12 million souls?

Uyi Stewart, chief scientist of IBM’s Africa Research Lab, calls the city “one of Africa’s economic and demographic powerhouses” but argues that it won’t successfully manage its growth without IT, including mobile and cloud technology, social media, and business analytics. IBM launched a new innovation center in Lagos earlier this year, part of a broader investment in Africa.

Last year a six-person IBM team spent a month working with government agencies to analyze the city’s transportation systems. Lagos traffic jams are epic. The drive to the airport from Victoria Island, home to the city’s embassies, top hotels, and biggest businesses, takes only 45 minutes at night, but someone with an 11 a.m. flight will need to leave before 6 a.m. when the traffic locks. One area of IBM’s focus was the expansion of transportation services using the city’s myriad waterways, which already carry more than 170,000 commuters a day but could carry many more if transport systems were optimized on the basis of cloud computing, analytics, and mobile data. Analytics technology applied to data stored in the cloud could predict water traffic, streamlining traffic flow. That would then feed into cell-phone updates for commuters about the best times to travel and how long their trip is likely to take.

The project was part of IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge initiative, a three-year, 100-city, $50 million competitive grant. One private-sector initiative is IBM’s work with Virtual Streets, a Nigerian startup, using cognitive computing systems to provide location-based services to people in Nigerian cities. Using data from geographic information systems, traffic cameras, and phones from subscribers, Virtual Streets gives subscribers real-time traffic data paid for by location-based ads for local businesses.

“There is already ample data available in Lagos,” says IBM’s Stewart. “Cell phones, social media, traffic cameras, global positioning systems, banks, and retail stores are all producing terabytes of big data loaded with potential insight about how the city works and how its citizens move around within it.” The challenge is figuring out how to actually use all that information.

The Eko Atlantic project is key to the city’s regeneration. It is a planned district being constructed on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. Upon completion, the new island will house 250,000 residents and a daily flow of 100,000 commuters. Sand reclamation and the building of a seawall, sometimes referred to as the Great Wall of Lagos, are set to be completed by 2018. All infrastructure work is to be done by 2020, according to David Frame, managing director of South Energyx Nigeria Limited, the developers and city planners of Eko Atlantic.

Lagos has a strong technology startup scene that should help the city as it evolves. Its CcHUB, where technologists, social entrepreneurs, and investors gather to create solutions to Nigeria’s social problems, compares well with similar spaces in other parts of Africa and in Europe.

Still, basic challenges remain. Electricity is not delivered consistently, and for every paying customer, there are countless others who illegally piggyback on utilities. Vandalism and theft of critical network infrastructure are endemic. Moreover, while mobile-phone penetration in Lagos is high, smartphones have been slow to take hold. Hitendra Naik, director of innovation for Intel Sub-­Saharan and South Africa, says one promising development is local initiatives that have helped companies lay down new fiber-optic lines in return for connecting or subsidizing rates to local schools. Another popular initiative uses data capture and analysis to let people submit applications for a vehicle license electronically, then walk into a bank to print it off—a quicker and simpler alternative to chaotic queues at government offices with a waiting time of weeks or even months.


http://www.technologyreview.com/news/532481/booming-lagos-smart-city/

Ilekeh,
I like these banners, very inspiring. I saved copy....

MayorofLagos:
Ilekeh,
I like these banners, very inspiring. I saved copy....

Thanks, planning on making more

Oke Ado mountain, Oyo state

Ondo State......... I love the greens

Ekiti State


www.nairaland.com/attachments/778770_afe20babalola20uni20ekiti1_jpgff1e561add8a8474cfe26ca4a0f62056 www.nairaland.com/attachments/778769_afe20babalola20uni2_jpgd99bdfb14312da2f6150e2a0334871e7

Ekiti State

Ekiti

[img]http://bezalelforce.files./2012/05/tjm-1-of-82.jpg?w=890[/img]

[img]http://bezalelforce.files./2012/05/tjm-2-of-82.jpg?w=593[/img]

Ekiti.

In previous pages I mentioned that roads now stretch from my village to other cities in Ekiti. Here are some examples



www.nairaland.com/attachments/779655_Ekiti_jpg1bf8b7e73cba50702b2e27134747e61b www.nairaland.com/attachments/779656_ekitii_jpg1bbd026fd671c0c0b8b497e6a1fd892c
www.nairaland.com/attachments/779657_ek_jpg055e232d6a564833da79afbf87f95d23

May her soul RIP

www.nairaland.com/attachments/840231_426292_467081379991846_536631046_n_jpg6d2f3cc3dfac033042155dc95b821b7b
www.nairaland.com/attachments/840232_534238_464901910209793_1557484637_n_jpgb43f5212eac1ac98f7dea89ddae9fca5

CONTEXT

In a 1957 report, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Premier of Western Nigeria, outlined the developing role of film within the region. ‘We have carried enlightenment and entertainment to remote areas through the Government Free Cinema Scheme’ he began. ‘Last year, there were 40 cinema vans and six cinema barges. We now have our own Film Production Unit, and one of its outstanding achievements is the 85-minute film in colour, which covers all aspects of our self-government celebrations and visit of Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal’ (Lagos Guardian, 29 August 2001). The annual report of the Western Region Government, in discussing the widespread celebrations and the tour of Princess Royal, also noted in 1957 that ‘a colour film of the occasion was made by the Department of Information Services’ (Western Region, 1957, 27).

The Information Services of Western Nigeria film production unit only came into operation in 1957. Born out of the Nigerian Film Unit – which itself had emerged from the Colonial Film Unit – its primary objective was to produce documentary films ‘for the purpose of publicising the activities of the region’. In addition, it sought to keep people ‘inside and outside the region fully informed of the developmental activities being carried on’ (Government of Western Nigeria, 1961, 14). By 1960, the unit had produced ‘67 newsreels of 10 to 20 minutes duration [and] at least one dozen documentary films’. A government report listed amongst these documentaries ‘Self Government Celebrations in Western Nigeria’ – seemingly an alternative title to this film – and ‘The Last Step to Independence’ (Government of Western Nigeria, 1961, 14). A Federal Report, in noting the work of the Federal Film Unit in 1957, explained that amongst the 13 documentaries released during the year was Tour of H.R.H., the Princess Royal, Another Step Forward (the Constitutional Conference) and Nigeria Hails Her Prime Minister (Colonial Office, 1957, 144). Indeed, while the Units produced a number of health films and others on social welfare and development, there was a noticeable emphasis on ceremonial and political events within their output.

Western and Eastern Nigeria were both awarded self-government in 1957, while the Northern region would follow in 1959. The communal, racial and political rivalries, most clearly manifested in the Kano riots of 1953, had led to increased decentralisation and in 1954 Nigeria received its third constitution in seven years (Brendon, 2007, 534). The British looked to exploit this splintering, most notably between prominent nationalists such as Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik) and Obafemi Awolowo. Awolowo, who had founded the Action Group to promote Yoruba interests, was a vocal opponent of colonial rule, arguing that British administration had been ‘carried out by incompetent, inferior officials’, and that the British never had ‘the true interests of the country at heart’. In 1955, referring to the government of the Western region, he stated that ‘in fourteen months under the present government, we have done more for Nigeria than the British did in 120 years’ (Gunther, 1955, 775).


from colonialfilm.org.

IlekeHD:


Press your ignore button. Her main purpose is to derail the thread.

@ aarekankafo and MOL

I'll reply you two soon.

O da egbon mi.

MayorofLagos:


Lmao

E nfi mi rerin ni.

Ileke,
Great pics! Was that the deceased deputy Gov?

IlekeHD:

*sigh*

Akure would have been much more Important than Ibadan if it was even half as Big, In my Opinion.
Ibadan is just Huge.

Omo Forest Reserve, Ogun state.

More Omo Forest Reserve, Ogun

Omo Forest Reserve, Ogun contd.

Omo forest reserve.

Wow!

...never knew this thread exists.

Nice initiative, OP!

...so cool it's a general Yoruba thread and not a divisive state-based thread as our distant cousins from the east of Niger are known for, if you know what I mean.

tupacshakur:
Wow!

...never knew this thread exists.

Nice, initiative, OP!

...so cool it's a general Yoruba thread and not a divisive state-based thread as our distant cousins from the east of Niger are known for, if you know what I mean.

0merta, where have you been ? You are needed here often.

himkers:


[size=18pt] This one too na development?? Bunch of jokers [/size]

You must have a mustard seed sized brain for not realizing the massive opportunities in the Advertising business.

Do you think it's 2 by 4 shops that's the indicator of a business??

Now carry your fungi infected brain off this thread and go get some knowledge.

Musiwa419:
0merta, where have you been ? You are needed here often.

Ta lo mo mi as 0merta?

Bro, wetin be your other moniker wey I fit take recognise you?

This your "Musiwa" moniker funny die. The real Musiwa na one hell of a funny dude.

No wahala, I go dey show here often.

ba7man:
You must have a mustard seed sized brain for not realizing the massive opportunities in the Advertising business.

Do you think it's 2 by 4 shops that's the indicator of a business??

Now carry your fungi infected brain off this thread and go get some knowledge.

MUMU! Shame no even catch you to talk this nonsense above?? sophisticated set of eediots

himkers:


MUMU! Shame no even catch you to talk this nonsense above?? sophisticated set of eediots

You have made no point......

My post indicates the potentials of advertising


Yours........... nothing...... empty head like you.

Now scram you fungi infected maggot.

ba7man:
You have made no point......

My post indicates the potentials of advertising


Yours........... nothing...... empty head like you.

Now scram you fungi infected maggot.

now read what you wrote there slowly - over and over again; and understand what I call you a fool

himkers:


now read what you wrote there slowly - over and over again; and understand what I call you a fool

It still doesn't stop you from being a maggot to me.

ba7man:
It still doesn't stop me from being a maggot to you.

yes I know

This our people sef are very somehow. OMO FOREST RESERVE dosent even have a website or a call contact for information. What is the job of the commissioner of tourism? Because things like this are too small for the governor to be called upon. Yorubaland is quite peaceful and promoting tourism shouldn't be a poblem for us.