By Stephen Asante
Accra, March 14, GNA – Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, United Kingdom (UK), says Africa needs multi-stakeholder and cross-disciplinary approach to develop sustainable smart cities.
He advised that policymakers should work closely with the academia and industry as well as the wider professional society for an inclusive and resilient urban environment needed to stimulate rapid socio-economic growth.
That collective responsibility was critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, Prof. Ochieng noted while delivering a paper at the 2026 Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lectures, hosted by the University of Ghana, Legon, in Accra.
His topic was: ‘Sustainable Smart Cities –the Need for Digital and Fit-for-Purpose Engineers’.
The lecture was premised on the background that cities around the world were under immense pressure from various economic, social and environmental challenges, and that in many cities, population had been predicted to grow significantly over the next decades.
Development analysts hold the view that the sustainable smart city concept not only speeds up services and enhances urban life by integrating cutting-edge technologies but also ensures environmental protection and promotes social equity and cohesion.
They advance, for instance, the notion that smart grids, smart transportation, smart healthcare, and smart infrastructure help to reduce carbon emissions, optimise resource use, and create safer environments for future generations.
Many cities across the world are already utilising big data analytics gathered from smart sensors and connected devices to manage traffic, reduce energy usage, and improve a wide range of urban operations and services.
“At the same time, new technological innovations are emerging in the horizon, for example, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV), and Internet of Things (IoT),” the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow noted.
Prof. Ochieng, who is the Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, UK, assessed the level of dependency of nations’ critical infrastructural sectors on Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) Systems, particularly Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
Discussing the various applications and services of PNT and their quantified requirements, system vulnerabilities and risks, the technocrat presented a compelling and imperative case for nations, including Ghana, to address the risks through an integrated system-of-systems high resilience PNT.
At the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialised agency for ICTs, researchers is working to develop the tremendous potential ICTs have in helping build smarter, more sustainable cities.
“If we want to reach the targets set out by the UN SDG 11, we need to work together to develop the tools that will help cities become truly smart and sustainable.” Prof. Ochieng advised.
He explored the need for a parametric platform for integrated planning, modelling, design and visualisation of sustainable smart cities.
Additionally, Prof. Ochieng drew attention to the need to train engineers capable of successfully addressing the many challenges of contemporary times, saying some of those setbacks posed existential threats.
“We should train fit-for-purpose engineers who can rise to the challenges that we are facing. And that requires something that I call total education,” he emphasised.
He said by strengthening professional engineering bodies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the continent could drive sustainable and inclusive development through best practices.
The Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lecture Series was instituted in 1957 to commemorate the contributions made by the three persons memorialised to the founding of Achimota College, now Achimota School, where the University of Ghana started from.
It has become a major event in the academic life of Ghana’s premier university, treating topics, ranging from science, technology, socio-economic development, tradition and culture, law, religion to politics, all to find an antidote to the nation’s development challenges.
The 2026 version was held on the theme: “Building Sustainable Smart Cities on Resilient Digital Infrastructure”.
GNA
14 March 2026
Edited by Samuel Osei-Frempong