Growth, for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

- Edward Abbey, writer, essayist, novelist (1927 1989)

Working and travelling across Nigerian cities over the past five years, I cant help but wonder what Nigerias urban landscape will look like in the next decade. From city to city, the uncoordinated, scattered and hap-hazard nature of development and the dearth in infrastructure cannot go unnoticed. Such is the case even where millions of dollars have been invested by governments and private individuals. Only recently, the Governor of my State was reported to have lamented the fact that our capital city, which prides itself as a pacesetter and one of the largest cities in West Africa lacked an integrated master plan. since its creation. The aftermath of this is clear to see as you drive through the sprawling metropolis. TATU city is a 1000 hectare mixed use district to be located within greater Nairobi. It is designed to be a self-sustaining city housing 62,000 residents and supported with commercial , tourism and recreational amenities. The US$ 5 billion project has 11 phases and is to be completed in 8 11 years. TATU is a PPP initiative with 50% of the finance to be provided by Renaissance Partners, the investment arm of Russia's Renaissance Capital Financial Holdings. This represents one of the largest foreign direct investments in Kenya. In building a city from scratch and providing a complete network of infrastructure and services, TATU is essentially taking over what is usually the responsibility of Government. It has been noted that this project remains closely tied to the imperatives of profitability and will inevitably cater to the housing needs of the high and middle classes above all else. Thus, the need for Governments intervention in the lower class housing market must still be addressed.

We Can Build Sustainable Cities

Akin Ajao is president and founder of Sustainable Impact International, a non profit think tank focused on advocacy, innovation and development. He is a management and land resource consultant based in Lagos, Nigeria, a member of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Akin has consulted for the Federal Government of Nigeria under the World Bank & DFID sponsored Economic Reform and Governance project and has been involved in engagements with Federal and State Governments focusing on institutional strengthening, capacity building, infrastructure and development advisory services. For enquiries: siinternational@ymail.com proakin@gmail.com

Artistic impression of TATU City That urbanisation continues to grow across Africa is not disputable. My concern is with how this trend is managed. If indeed we intend for our urban areas to attain true Mega-city status, such as the likes of Tokyo, Seoul, New York or Shanghai, we must develop an economically viable urban development strategy that will ensure the delivery of the necessary infrastructure, housing and social amenities to support our land use plans. Our failure to follow through on this will only result in the creation of Mega-slums over the next decade. I am saddened to think that our suburbs and satellite districts, which should serve as model communities, reflecting lessons learnt from the development of the metropolis are characterised by poor layouts, squatter settlements and a glaring absence of infrastructure , social amenities and adequate development control. It is time to chart a way forward. A workable private-sector led approach to urban development can be seen in Kenyas novel TATU City project.

There are two key lessons from TATU. The first is that city development projects are viable if the necessary legal, financial and institutional frameworks are in place. The second is that it has become clear that Governments alone cant manage urbanisation without the intervention of private investors. A private sector driven and Government regulated urban development strategy will no doubt serve as the catalyst towards sustainable development in SubSaharan Africa. This approach does not represent an all embracing solution to our development challenge, however it does represent a radical shift from failures of the past. Now is the time to build cities, and not slums.