DEAT Capital to host Financing Smart Cities conference

Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
FINANCIAL advisory firm, DEAT Capital Zimbabwe is set to host the Financing Smart Cities and Rural Connect Conference on 30 June 2022, aimed at addressing and raising solutions to financing, which has been viewed as one of the biggest challenges to implementing a smart city strategy.

The event will run under the theme: “Innovative financing solutions of the cities and rural communities ecosystem post-Covid-19 pandemic.”

DEAT Capital is a Zimbabwe trade and investment firm. Their focus is on development of smart cities, renewable energy projects, end to end logistics solutions, logistics infrastructure and management in Southern Africa.

In an interview, DEAT Capital Zimbabwe managing director, Mr Nicky Moyo said the conference will unpack financing which is often stated as one of the biggest challenges to implementing a smart city strategy.

“Zimbabwe is embarking on a slate of ambitious and new, fourth-generation ‘smart cities’ on the cusp of the nation’s Sustainable Development Strategy Vision 2030. The transformation of cities and rural communities is accelerating. Apart from different factors that contribute to the development of a smart city, finance acts as the backbone.

Financing is often stated as one of the biggest challenges to implement a smart city strategy. This is not only due to pressure on public budgets but also to inherent complexity of smart city and rural projects covering such as energy efficiency measures for various types of buildings and the development of smart grids and integrated mobility concepts.”

He said while bigger cities might be able to develop robust business models, creative revenue models and identify value capture which can attract investors, this route was barely impossible for small and medium-sized cities and rural communities purely due to a lack of organisational capacity. Mr Moyo said this is where digital financing platforms could play an important role and all the decisions and functioning were based on finance.

“Having a modern and web-based financial system can bring about favourable changes in a city making it a perfect place to roll out the smart cities concept. The role of fintech and digital finance is increasingly demonstrating its ability to overcome key barriers for smaller scale project finance through the ability to make the processing and analysis of larger amounts of data cheaper, faster and more accurate,” he added.

He said the conference will cover topics such as bank loans, digital finance, crowdfunding, venture capital for the city development and urban real estate finance (pooled finance development fund schemes).

Mr Moyo said some of the key areas under discussion will include smart construction technologies for smart cities, smart healthcare, smart education and learning solutions.

Meanwhile, the Bulawayo City Council is engaging potential investors to bankroll various projects under the “Smart City” concept which has been endorsed by the private sector and the Government. The local authority has already developed a strategic plan to reposition itself as a “smart city” destination by 2024.

Smart cities modelling thrives on increased citizen engagement and use of digital technologies among others to make councils more resilient and better able to respond to development challenges.

The Bulawayo drive is running concurrently with the Government’s cities regeneration and rehabilitation exercise.