A new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Smart Cities Spending Guide shows global spending on smart cities initiatives will total nearly $124 billion this year, an increase of 18.9% over 2019.

The top 100 cities investing in smart initiatives in 2019 represented around 29% of global spending, and while growth will be sustained among the top spenders in the short term, the market is quite dispersed across midsize and small cities investing in relatively small projects.

“This new release of IDC’s Worldwide Smart Cities Spending Guide brings further expansion of our forecasts into smart ecosystems with the addition of smart ports alongside smart stadiums and campus,” said Serena Da Rold, program manager in IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis group.

“The Spending Guide also provides spending data for more than 200 cities and shows that fewer than 80 cities are investing over $100 million per year. At the same time, around 70% of the opportunity lies within cities that are spending $1 million or less per year. There is a great opportunity for providers of smart city solutions who are able to leverage the experience gained from larger projects to offer affordable smart initiatives for small and medium sized cities.”

In 2019, use cases related to resilient energy and infrastructure represented over one third of the opportunity, driven mainly by smart grids. Data-driven public safety and intelligent transportation represented around 18% and 14% of overall spending respectively.

Looking at the largest use cases, smart grids (electricity and gas combined) still attract the largest share of investments, although their relative importance will decrease over time as the market matures and other use cases become mainstream.

Fixed visual surveillance, advanced public transportation, intelligent traffic management, and connected back office follow, and these five use cases together currently represent over half of the opportunity. The use cases that will see the fastest spending growth over the five-year forecast are vehicle-to-everything (V2X) connectivity, digital twin, and officer wearables.

Singapore will remain the top investor in smart cities initiatives. Tokyo will be the second largest spender in 2020, driven by investments for the Summer Olympics, followed by New York City and London. These four cities will each see smart city spending of more than $1 billion in 2020.

On a regional basis, the United States, Western Europe, and China will account for more than 70% of global smart cities spending throughout the forecast. Latin America and Japan will experience the fastest growth in smart cities spending in 2020.

Prof. Umar Danbatta

Executive Vice Chairman/CEO

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)

With consumers’ interest and how they could get better quality of services as its focal point, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, says “we will abide by all the tenets of consumer rights in our day to day activities at the NCC.”

The EVC’s statement underpins activities of the regulatory agency which has manifest oversight functions over the various network operators in Nigeria.

As Nigeria joins the rest of the global community to mark the World Consumer’s Right Day on March 15, 2020, the EVC said the NCC had put in place a series of initiatives to always cushion and protect the interest of the consumers.

The theme for this year’s event is ‘The Sustainable Consumer’.

For instance, it has over the years hosted the flagship Telecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) where consumer issues are discussed extensively in a high profile session where the regulator, operators and consumers interact and answers got in the process.

Eighty-eight of such parliaments have been held so far in the major cities across Nigeria.

Besides this, no fewer than 110 Consumer Outreach Programmes (COPs) have been held. The event holds monthly in urban centres in the country.

Consumer Town Hall Meetings (CTM) which exclusively hold in rural communities have been well received across the land. So far, 53 of such events have taken place.

There have also been Elite Enlightenment Campaigns targeted at professional organisations during their yearly conferences.

This is done to carry along the high profile professionals who may not have enough time to participate in the TCP, COP and CTMs which hold regularly.

According to a press release signed by Dr. Henry Nkemadu, Director, Public Affairs at NCC, there are campaigns too to empower the Nigerian Youth through information and awareness creation regarding their rights and obligations within the Nigerian telecom industry as well as apprising them about the consumer protection initiatives of the Commission.

“We participate in trade fairs where we engage the consumer on one-on-one basis”.

According to the EVC, the Commission has developed and produced Consumer Education materials on major telecom issues for distribution. The developed factsheets are translated into the three major languages (Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba) including Pidgin. Such materials cover the DND Campaign, SIM Registration and Replacement, role of NCC in consumer protection among others.

The Commission has in place different channels for lodging Consumer Complaints.

These include:

The NCC 622 Toll Free number for escalating unresolved complaints and for seeking redress is working. The centre is open 8am 0 8pm Mondays to Saturdays. There has been consistent campaign on the 622 NCC Toll Free Line.

• Web Portal – The web portal is an alternative online channel for lodging complaints and making enquiries. The portal is available 24 hours and can be accessed via ncc.gov.ng/consumer
• Management of twitter account (@consumersncc) for disseminating information to consumers. The CAB Twitter account (@Consumersncc) is updated with current topical issues of interest to consumers and it currently has 10,700 followers (Consumers).
• Consistent campaign on DND has attracted 22,487,849 subscribers on DND services as at December 2019.
• Regular monitoring of service providers helplines to ensure that the threshold set by the Commission is met 1.e number of rings before connecting to Interactive Voice Response (IVR), connection of calls to live agents, percentage of failed attempts to customer care helplines etc.
• Review of the Complaint Categories and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) on Complaint Management in view of recent technological advancements.
• Co-ordination of Consumer Protection Special Intervention Initiatives such as:

1. a.      Strategic Bi-Annual Meeting with Senior Executive Directors of Telcos on Complaint Management.
2. Constitution of a Multi-Sectorial Working Group on E-Fraud
3. Development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with relevant Stakeholders on E-Fraud.

• Periodic visits to Service Providers call centres to monitor real time handling of consumer complaints on quality of service and assurance, among others.

Carbon has set up a $100,000 Pan-African fund to address the lack of funding and support holding back budding tech entrepreneurs on the continent.

Carbon’s Disrupt fund, the first of its kind by an African fintech startup, will invest up to $10,000 per startup (for 5 percent equity) and give access to Carbon’s API, allowing investees to leverage Carbon’s growing customer base and innovative technology platform, to get to market faster.

Acknowledging that its success is dependent on the growth of the tech ecosystem, Carbon expects the initiative to spark more collaboration and further investment that should drive growth across the ecosystem. It’s not all altruistic, unfortunately!

Carbon is now accepting applications from companies with operations in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Egypt.

Startups looking to apply for the fund must have a functioning product, post revenue and looking to operate in multiple countries. The fund has a wide investment mandate but target sectors include insurance, health, education which have not seen as much investment as the fintech space.

More than 50 percent of startup funding on the continent in 2019 went to fintech firms¹, despite the abundance of opportunities that exist in other sectors.

Carbon’s Disrupt fund has been developed to tackle this head on, making it easier for entrepreneurs across all sectors to access the funds and support they need to establish their solutions and achieve their business objectives.

The fund will also provide mentorship, access to Carbon’s customers and payment platform, as well as office space in Carbon’s Lagos offices.

According to Chijioke Dozie, CEO and co-founder of Carbon, “Common investor wisdom is to stay in your market and dominate. This assumes that you are expanding on your own but we believe that by collaborating and partnering deliberately, Carbon and other tech companies can scale faster and build more enduring platforms.  There are many excellent companies across the continent looking for the kind of scale Nigeria offers and we are excited to partner with them to provide the support and financial investment they need. We are equally excited to expand beyond Nigeria and Kenya by working with a new generation of innovators across the continent and sharing our experience to tackle common obstacles to growth”

Ngozi Dozie, co-founder of Carbon, added: “The investing environment for early stage startups has improved in recent years. However, a key issue for most startups that has not been addressed is the cost of customer acquisition. A lot of money is spent on acquiring customers, mainly via social media, when a more collaborative approach among tech companies could be more efficient. Our fund will enable this collaboration, allowing others to market to our customer base and vice versa – a win-win for everyone. As the saying goes, ‘if you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.”

(L-R) Akeem Lawal, DCEO, Payment Processing, Interswitch; Vivi Galani, VP & GM, Business Development GNS EMEA; Mitchell Elegbe, GMD and Founder, Interswitch Group; Jonathan Curtis, Director, Business Development East & West Africa at the launch of Interswitch and AMEX partnership in Lagos recently.

Interswitch Limited, a leading technology-driven company focused on the digitisation of payments in Nigeria and other countries in Africa, and American Express (AmEx), are pleased to announce a new partnership to expand the usage and acceptance of American Express Cards across Nigeria.

The partnership with Interswitch will enable American Express Card members to transact using a wide range of merchants, who process payments through the Interswitch platform, for a range of travel, retail, hospitality and dining expenses, as well as ATM withdrawals.

The partnership will also allow Interswitch to integrate its network of merchants in Nigeria into the global American Express network.

As part of the agreement, Interswitch will assume responsibility for managing American Express merchants in Nigeria, while bringing new merchants onto its platform. Previously, American Express Card members could only use their cards at select locations across the country. This new partnership broadens that acceptance to Interswitch merchants, ATMs and websites nationwide.

Akeem Lawal, Divisional Chief Executive Officer for Payment Processing at Interswitch said: “AmEx and Interswitch are aligned in our desire to provide fast and secure payment solutions and transactions across Nigeria. With this new partnership, we are improving AmEx Card member access to a convenient and secure network, which also benefits our merchants who will gain new opportunities presented by an expanded user base. By remaining card scheme neutral, Interswitch will continue to explore innovative partnerships that will benefit consumers and retailers alike.”

Lawal also reiterated the commitment of Interswitch to reliably cater to its valued merchants, to reinforce the Company’s mantra of ‘Transaction solutions you can depend on’. He recommended new merchants join the Interswitch platform, highlighting that the addition of American Express cards can help to expand their businesses.

Vivi Galani, Vice President & General Manager, Global Network Partnerships EMEA for American Express stated that the new partnership reinforced American Express’s role as a leading global network. She said: “We are excited to be partnering with Interswitch, a well-respected pan-African financial technology company, to continue to grow our presence in Nigeria. As we partner with leading banks and financial institutions around the world, we are bringing the powerful backing of the American Express network to Card members and merchants by expanding acceptance of our Cards.”