Smart cities are not driving much volume growth for project cargo operators despite growing emphasis on these developments on the continent.President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced the concept of the Lanseria Smart City in his 2021 state of the nation address.He is not alone on the African continent – Kenya has been busy with Konza Technology City since 2008, Nigeria has the Eko Atlantic City on the drawing board, Ghana HOPE City, Ethiopia a “Wakanda-like” techno city in the Minchu district of the city of Bahir Dar, Rwanda Kigali Innovation City, and Senegal Akon City.However, the only one to generate significant logistics and project cargo spin-off is Egypt’s New Capital City. Located 45 kilometres east of Cairo, the smart city has 21 residential districts and 25 commercial districts. It will have a park double the size of New York City’s Central Park, 90 square kilometres of solar energy farms, and several artificial lakes.Other key features include a technology park, 40 000 hotel rooms, a theme park four times the size of Disneyland, 2 000 educational institutions, 1 250 mosques, 663 hospitals and clinics, and a new international airport.Transfer of government ministries, foreign embassies, parliament, and presidential palaces is expected to take place by the end of 2022 at a cost of $45 billion.For now, the other city plans consist of little more than a building site with an office building (Konza), glossy brochures, websites and Facebook pages which need updating. What will drive demand for urban infrastructure-related project cargo services is people.Africa's population is the fastest growing in the world. It is expected to increase by roughly 50% over the next 18 years, growing from 1.2 billion to over 1.8 billion in 2035.
