Cape Town-based Singaporean private urban development initiative Africa123 has formed a strategic partnership with engineering and infrastructure company SMEC Africa, itself a subsidiary of Singaporean infrastructure group Surbana Jurong, to help achieve its goal of building cities in Africa.
Africa123 envisions developing one, two or three new regenerative, smart urban cities in each African country by 2063. Each new city design aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 Aspirations and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, it says.
The African Union Development Agency (AUDA) supports Africa123’s Continental Urban Development Framework and proposes a collaborative approach to developing a pilot project, with AUDA assuming the role of official adviser, Africa123 says.
Regenerative design principles and robust financial modelling underpin each uniquely designed new city within a regional context, drawing on decades of research and expertise by a multinational team of seasoned experts to ensure that each new city-build is sustainable from the outset, it says.
An Africa-specific funding model drives this Continental Urban Development Framework. Each new city-build delivers large-scale housing, mass employment, affordable healthcare provision with food, water and energy security that embraces a regenerative, or circular, economy approach to deliver sustainable development and wealth creation through homeownership for those who are currently excluded.
Africa123 is currently engaged in four new African city-builds, totalling over one-million residential units for about four-million inhabitants, it says.