Africa Spain Business Summit focuses on urban planning in cities

"Facing the challenges of the development of the big cities of Ivory Coast” was the title of the debate moderated by Carlos de Freitas, executive director of FMDV. The participants were Kéita Cissé Nakaradja, Mayor of San Pedro, in Ivory Coast; Sarah Cissé, director of Oazis Africa; Habib Mbengue, director of SHM; and Jean-Pascal Boah, director of International Cooperation and Sustainable Urban Development of the Ministry of Construction of Ivory Coast. 

The latter explained that “Ivory Coast, like all African countries, has a global vision with a view to 2030 and 2060. We are moving and the statistics show us the urgency of the urban and ecological transition. It is necessary to solve the problems that are found in the city, mobilizing actors, both ministries and territorial collectivities. There are many solutions” 

Boah explained some of the initiatives that have been launched in recent years, such as the construction of the largest tower in Africa in Abidjan, which may be very interesting for investors: “There is a lot to work on and improve in cities, working with communities, who know what needs to be done. Our Ministry accompanies them in the concrete problems: we have organized urban planning workshops in San Pedro, we have an urban planning plan for the communities. This framework is going to be modified with the national urban policy that we will have to put in place. We will call all the partners to the assemblies so that their vision is taken into account when structuring this policy, because we need a master plan.” 

Kéita Cissé Nakaradja, mayor of San Pedro, thanked the opportunity to show this city at the forum, and projected a video about the city, a seaside resort that is the first tourist destination within Ivory Coast, in the coastal area of the country, on the Atlantic coast. In tourist terms, it has some very attractive beaches, waterfalls, jungle…  

Among the challenges for the future are the improvement of access and basic equipment, education, health, sports, cultural and security. 

Habib Mbengue, director of SHM, an urban development promotion society, explained that “we have found a system to do this urban planning and we need to make certain changes so that everyone has a functional, quality accommodation. We need to plan for the next 30 years.” 

For Mbengue“ "The urban economy needs a multi-level approach. 50% of the population came from rural areas to the city, and now what is happening is that big cities are harming rural areas. We decided to focus on the cities of the interior so that there would not be this overlap. We should not leave the countryside behind”" 

For her part, Sarah Cissé, from Oazis Africa, said that "technology leads us to construction, like connected houses. Oazis has a role in the construction, facing the challenges and problems we have mentioned before. We are economic actors, but also citizens of the country, and we live it in the first person." 

The head of Oazis stressed that “the analysis of the situation made us design other products, to solve problems. We have developed products for investors, with strategies established at the state level. We have worked on the construction establishment - there are several families with properties who do not want to use their properties. We have given them the possibility of setting up a real estate management to attract investors.” 

African cities: the need for renewed financial approaches

This roundtable, organized by the Global Fund for Cities Development (FMDV) addressed the challenges of urban development and financing. It offered the opportunity to explore the complexities and opportunities related to urban growth in Africa, with African ministers, representatives of African and Spanish cities and agencies involved in cooperation and financing. 

Also moderated by the executive director of FMDV, Carlos de Freitas, it was attended by Jean-Pascal Boah director of International Cooperation and Sustainable Urban Development of the Ministry of Constructions of the Ivory Coast; Siriki Sangaré, president of the Royal Federation of Development of the West African States; Bárbara Pons, director general of the Urban Development Agency of the Barcelona Region; Kouassi Kouamé Patrice, mayor of Yamoussoukro; and Fernando Jiménez-Ontiveros Diego, director general of Multilateral, Horizontal and Financial Cooperation ( AECID). 

For Jean-Pascal Boah: "There are many urban planning processes, so there is a great need for investment and financing of infrastructure projects. This is a problem that can be expanded to the continental level. The Ministry has the capacity to be able to overcome the problems of financing in Africa. Specific financing instruments should be established. There is not only one solution: we need more projects that support investment. The Ministry's new approach is to make investments according to climate needs." 

For her part, Patrice Kouassi Kouamé pointed out that “industrialization is an uneven and slow process in Africa. Yamoussoukro is the fourth city in Ivory Coast that is becoming the capital, it is preparing for the transfer of the capital by assets. It benefits from many infrastructures and the surrounding areas that allows to develop many projects. There are plans to continue improving infrastructure plans. There is a plan that was implemented in 2018 for local development” 

Kouamé pointed out the four axes of financing that they have: state subsidies, the city council's own resources that are used in the advancement of digitization, registration of city council properties in order to be able to have financing from the city council, and foreign investments, specifically, from Spanish ones, which represent a large part of the performance. We propose to invest in local infrastructure, such as the creation of hydrocarbon plants. We are a transit city and one of the country's logistics platforms.” 

Barbara Pons praised the figure of the mayors of the cities: "They are heroes and heroines because they do everything for the welfare of their citizens. I would ask them to put the future on their agendas. Barcelona Regional is an idea born 30 years ago after the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Pasqual Maragall was the one who planned the initial idea that Barcelona and its metropolitan area should have a strategic planning. It is an intermediate space between the public-private sector. We seek to give space and time to the strategy to know how to anticipate the problems of the future.” 

Regarding Africa, Pons said that "good planning is the equivalent of progress, and there are many investment possibilities in Africa. Water, energy, food and resources, well planned in the long term, can represent a before and after in African cities”.