Millennium Cities Initiative -- City Profiles *
Akure, population 350,000, is the capital of Ondo State, the largest state in Nigeria’s southwest and in the Yoruba cultural region. Endowed with an abundance of natural resources – bitumen deposits and liquid natural gas, extensive tropical forest reserves, a natural port and river – Ondo State is well positioned for an economic take-off.
The government in Ondo State has made development a top priority and has committed substantial resources to infrastructure, water management, agriculture, and job training programs. Akure is the key trading center for a farming region growing yams, cassava, maize, bananas, rice, palm oil, okra, and pumpkins; cocoa is the most important local commercial crop; cotton, palm, and teak are also processed for export. Other industries include electronics manufacturing, bottling, banking; weaving, pottery-making, and the marketing of cocoa. Akure is also a tourist destination and departure point for visitors to the nearby Osse River. Connected by road to Lagos and Ibadan, the city has an airport, a state specialist hospital, the Federal University of Technology (FUTA), an agricultural school, teachers college and a bevy of media outlets.
However, Akure still lacks essential infrastructure: the reliable supply of water and power, as well as proper drainage and solid waste disposal. While a major road construction program, dam rehabilitation and solar-powered borehole installations are well underway, rapid in-migration has exacerbated downtown congestion, a serious housing shortage, the infectious disease burden, unemployment and pollution.
Possible Business Opportunities: The most lucrative opportunities appear to lie in the extraction industries; in the export capabilities opened up by the port has been upgraded, and in the port expansion itself (through concessions, etc.). Agro-processing, furniture-making, electronics, Internet technology, the insurance industry, and tourism all have room for expansion and modernization.
Bamako (pop. 1.3m), Mali’s administrative and economic capital, is a river port and regional trade center located on the Niger River, in the southwest of the country. The river port is vital to the nation’s economy, with a quarter of both Mali’s GDP and its national consumption generated from the city, as well as 70% of Mali’s 243 industrial enterprises. However, the city’s geographical location is economically challenging, particularly with regard to trade, as the region is remote and far from the coast.
Cotton ginning leads manufacturing activity; other industries include pharmaceuticals, chemicals, textiles, ceramics, farm machinery, battery production,
river fishing, and tobacco processing. However, aggressive farming and agro-pastoral activities constitute a threat to the fragile ecosystem and foster desertification.
Rapid urbanization, coupled with a weak economy, has resulted in poor living conditions and sanitation, high unemployment, an unacceptable disease burden, and fragile civic and social structures. An express highway leads from the city center to the international airport, and a freight rail line runs between Bamako and Dakar.** Bamako is connected to the Manantali Dam (capacity: 200 mw) through a 1,500-km transmission grid. There remain serious infrastructural gaps, particularly in the energy and transportation sectors.
A $491m US Government Millennium Challenge Account will help to upgrade the Bamako airport, build and equip a neighboring export processing zone and finance a vast irrigation project of the Office du Niger, to boost agricultural production in the area around Segou.
Segou, a former French colonial city of roughly 400,000, is an important historic Malian site situated on the banks of the Niger River. Well-governed and relatively small, Segou has much to offer as an agro-processing and textile manufacturing center. Two large rice companies are located there, as well as milk packaging and other smaller concerns. Telecommunications and Internet coverage are inadequate, affording opportunities in that area. With its quaint charm and delightful breezes, it holds appeal also as a potential tourist destination, given the right mix of accommodations, eateries, and river- and lake-based recreational activities. The District of Segou is also home to the cluster of 11 farming communities that participate in the Millennium Village Project.
Possible Business Opportunities in Bamako: Agro-processing and textile production, both of which capture the production generated by the Millennium Villages and other rural areas, are promising sectors with room for development, as are chemical and pharmaceutical plants and banking and insurance. Tourism, too, should play a role: Bamako is an easy flight away from the ancient trade nexus Timbouctou, on the edge of the Sahara, enabling the visitor to observe the transition from nomadic, desert communities to settled Sahelian farms.
Possible Business Opportunities in Segou: Prospects exist in low-overhead agro-processing and manufacturing (rice products, e.g., white rice and animal meal; dried fruits and fruit juices; textiles), aquaculture, and tourism; land prices, the river, and the town itself make Segou attractive, and easy access to Bamako, with its air links, infrastructure, technical expertise, and sophisticated service sector, completes the missing link from farm to international markets.
Malawi’s most populous city (est. 700,000), Blantyre is also the country’s chief commercial and industrial center, with road, rail, and air links to all parts of the country and rail links to Indian Ocean ports in Mozambique. Key industries are cement, food and tobacco-processing, and textiles, with the latter ripe for revitalization, given the potential for locally produced cotton. The City Assembly has developed extensive plans for improvements both in infrastructure and in the delivery of essential services, but has few resources with which to implement its plans. HIV/AIDS has had a debilitating presence (over 20%) on the urban community, with an immeasurable cost in human resources. Malawi still suffers famine as a result of the 2005 draught; child and maternal mortality rates are extraordinarily high, and life expectancy currently stands at roughly 37 years.
Possible Business Opportunities: Successful private and joint ventures include fish farming and a range of agro-processing activities, with opportunities for expansion into tea blending and the processing of oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, mushrooms, and coffee. Other opportunities include the revitalization of cotton and textile production; tourism (focused on wildlife viewing and eco-tourism), and Internet technology and telecommunications, as well as ready access to regional markets and transnational partners in South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Kenya’s third largest city (est. 500,000), situated on the Kavirondo Gulf, an arm of Lake Victoria, Kisumu is a regional hub with the potential to become the leading commercial, industrial and administrative center in the Lake Victoria Basin. The city faces severe challenges, though, from the combination of declining railway and ferry use; cheap subsidized imports; a slump in fishing, sugar, cotton and rice production due to environmental degradation, adverse weather conditions, and inaccessible markets, as well as tremendous population pressure. Kisumu has one of Kenya’s highest poverty levels (48% in 2004); severe shortages in housing, water, sanitation and appropriate solid waste disposal have slowed development, and the disease burden (untreated HIV/AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases) is very high. Over 60% of the population lives in peri-urban settings practicing unregulated, subsistence-level urban agriculture, thereby silting the lake and deforesting the surrounding hills. Yet the city is undergoing a resurgence in regional trade and tourism, and is working to improve its production and infrastructural capacity with an eye toward regaining its footing as an investment and tourist destination.
Possible Business Opportunities: Agro-processing activities include refined sugar, frozen fish, textiles, beer, sisal fiber, ethanol, and molasses; there is room for expansion in banking, insurance, Internet technology, and telecommunications. Plans for improving rail and air access have been budgeted for at the national level, and will, along with the revival of the ferry service, enhance opportunities for tourism, as well as convenient business access to Uganda and Tanzania.
During the academic year 2006-7 a graduate workshop of the School of Public and International Affairs at Columbia University is working to identify, research and carry out some feasibility work on promising areas for foreign direct investment in and around Kisumu.
With a population of 1.2m (daytime ca. 2m), Kumasi is the capital of the Ashanti region and Ghana’s northern hub. Gold-mining, teak harvesting, breweries and agro-processing dominate the economy of this largest Millennium City; the rail and airport require upgrading before the potential in those industries can be maximized. Kumasi boasts a bustling downtown and marketplace; yet much of the city’s population lives and farms in peri-urban settings, having been forced off the farms by crop failure and lack of market access.
Possible Business Opportunities: Hotels are much in need, both for business and tourism (including eco-tourism); Internet technology is eagerly awaited, and there is room for banks and insurance firms ready to finance and insure small-scale entrepreneurs. Cotton textile, leather goods, hardwood (teak) furniture production, fish farming, and cocoa processing (chocolate, butter, cosmetics) also have substantial underutilized potential, and the municipal authorities are keen to develop an industrial zone where such activities might take place. The airport renovation is expected soon, and plans for a new international airport are also underway.
With a population of roughly 120,000, Louga is the smallest of the Millennium Cities. Yet it shares the problems of cities many times its size. As farming has become less viable because of soil depletion, adverse weather conditions, and environmental degradation, migration to the city, particularly among young men, has drastically increased, placing a crushing strain on its infrastructure, which in turn has rendered its industries less competitive. Nevertheless, there are some 6,000 entrepreneurs in Louga, as well as some 30,000 artisans, with talents ready to be tapped for overseas markets. There is potential as well for significant agro- and aquaculture processing, including from the coastal Millennium Villages, which are also located in the Commune of Louga.
Possible Business Opportunities: Western markets can readily be found for the clothing, accessories, leather goods, house wares, and furniture produced in Louga, whether in European department stores or America’s high-end boutiques; residents attest to the need for micro-credit financing, which would likely boost artisanal production significantly. As in the other cities located within an hour of Millennium Villages, agro-processing and aquaculture are obvious areas worth pursuing; in addition, an hour away is one of Senegal’s largest cattle farms, making meat and dairy processing a viable option. Tourism, too, is a possibility, with deep-sea fishing, nice beaches, and the pleasant Lac de Guiers close by. Louga offers an array of cultural attractions, as well: the venerated Louga dance team, which has represented Senegal in international competitions, is in residence in the city.
During the academic year 2006-7 a graduate workshop of the School of Public and International Affairs at Columbia University is working to identify, research and carry out some feasibility work on promising areas for foreign direct investment in Louga and its environs.
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* The possible business opportunities listed below have been identified on the basis of preliminary research, on-site visits and interviews in the field. Each possibility listed will be followed up with further, and more comprehensive, on-the-ground research.
** The railway, 1,284 km long, is run by the Canadian company, Canac-Getma, and moves about 60,000 tons of freight traffic monthly, with no current plan to increase capacity or to add passenger service.