Manufacturing Africa made a strong case for green cities at the 9th edition of the Africities summit, held in Kenya’s city of Kisumu.
The 5-day event brought together more than 4,000 participants from across Africa and beyond; with hundreds of participants including government officials, industry leaders, researchers and innovators visiting the Manufacturing Africa programme booth located in the UK in Kenya tent which hosted several key initiatives of the UK government in Africa.
MA presented its innovative vision of green cities of the future and how these can improve living conditions for inhabitants. Using engaging visuals, MA demonstrated that green cities of the future will feature:
- sustainable transport
- green affordable construction materials
- waste recycling
- clean energy
The Manufacturing Africa Kenya Adviser Andrew Gartside engaged visitors at the MA booth, explaining that the ‘greening’ of African urban areas can be accelerated by:
- Updating building codes to allow for greener materials and integrate them into public housing and construction projects.
- Instituting increased recycling initiatives such as segregation of waste at source, setting up material recovery facilities (MRFs), and formalizing waste collection
- Enabling the shift to electric vehicles by installing charging infrastructure, introducing incentives such as reduced parking fees for electric vehicles etc.
The UK through its Manufacturing Africa programme is committed to working with the Kenyan government to grow the country’s green economy and has developed a Green Manufacturing 2030 roadmap for Kenya.
This plan is intended to accelerate economic activity that will result in the improved well-being of citizens while protecting the environment.
