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Promoting Africa’s efficiency in electricity distribution using spatial technology

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Just as the rest of the world, Africa has of late taken keen interest in promoting utility of clean and affordable energy, the seventh UN’s Sustainable Development Goal, among its population by 2030. The energy sector in the continent across the value chain has for a while been characterised with a drop in efficiency according to International Energy Agency. These inefficiencies include electricity generation from non-renewable pollutant sources such as coal as well as skewed distribution of this twenty first century vital human need. Electricity coverage and efficiency gaps Access to electricity has steadily grown with a 43% access rate in Africa, half a figure to global trends. Populations in South Africa and Northern Africa countries have amazingly almost absolute access to electricity. Kenya on the other hand has a 79% access rate courtesy of ‘last mile connectivity program’. Governance issues, high tariffs and lack of laws protecting investors have however dragged optimization
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Why we must rethink the Digital Divide post Covid-19

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  It is apparent that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed our bareness as a country with regards to the digital divide. This is basically the gap between those who have ready access to electronic devices (including TVs, phones and computers) and internet and those who don’t. Just to highlight, school-going age group including University students are no longer able to effectively access academic content since the advent of the unprecedented online learning. On the other hand, the vast number of jobs especially start-ups have become unsustainable obviously since individuals cannot work remotely due to disparities in internet coverage characterised by high excise duty . Insightfully considering these examples, we the young people are feeling the pinch. Shouldn’t this be alarming considering the future of the country is overly pegged on what this population does today? What essentially has to be done to mop up this mess? Figure 1: There are discrepancies in internet and device coverage in K
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THE LOCATION ADVANTAGE IN KONZA CITY IMPLEMENTATION IN KENYA

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  WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE KONZA CITY Figure 1: Visual impression of Konza City Source: https://youtu.be/2rfNxNTasPg The Konza Technopolis, named after a small town in Kenya where it is located, stretches the three Counties of Machakos, Makueni and Kajiado with an estimated area coverage of 5000 acres. Having been commenced in 2008, the implementation of the envisaged Smart City aims to fulfil the economic and social pillars of Vision 2030; a dream keen on promoting Kenya to a middle-income Country through eradication of poverty and creation of jobs. It is definitely one of a kind in Eastern and Central Africa considering it is being built from scratch through a public-private partnership. Konza is ideally situated with its proximity to transport networks like the newly-completed Standard Gauge Railway and availability of space for expansion. The optimization of the location advantage in this case certainly entailed site selection suitability analysis, taking into account va
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GEO-AI: A Mapping Gamechanger Today

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  WHAT IS GEO-AI? The twenty first century has been characterized by rapid technological changes that are a build-up to the insights of scholars and scientists of the past century. The geospatial world is not an exception with the rapid demand for location-based solutions fueling the paradigm shift. In particular, Geo-AI is a technological trend to watch out after taking the industry by storm with the internet being a catalyst to its recent steady growth. Before sinking any further into the subject, what actually is Geo-AI? Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (Geo-AI), can simply be stated as a concept of automation whose intent is to facilitate fast decision-making and pattern recognition of geographic data through subsets like deep learning which entails the use of neural networks just as the human brain. The data is trained before being executed using a deep learning model. Despite the introduction of the term AI in the mid 1950’s by Stanford University’s professor John McCarthy,
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Location: Nairobi, Kenya
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Essence of GIS Technology in implementing BRT in Nairobi City

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  INTRODUCTION The steady trend in urbanization worldwide, standing currently at 54% as well as increased utilitarian need for cars by city dwellers has characterized most urban areas by traffic snarl-ups and related inefficiencies. Public transport in the Kenya’s primate city of Nairobi has not been an exception of vehicular congestion especially over the past two decades, which definitely has proven to be a menace. Could it be because there are no reciprocal infrastructural developments to the demands or the efforts towards the regulation of traffic have not been effective? This timely discussion with regards to the establishment of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system towards developing Nairobi as a smart city (which is long overdue) will provide insights into how geospatial technologies are part and parcel to its successful implementation. HOW DO WE EFFECT THE BRT SYSTEM? The BRT system has been proven to be an attractive alternative for mass transit, a problem which does not affect Nair
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Location: Nairobi, Kenya
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