Emerging Themes, Concepts, and Solutions to Urban Challenges in Africa

Development realities confronting African cities truly call for contemporary and innovative solution that is crosscutting in concept, cost effective in implementation, and socially inclusive in impact. However, one of the most recent urban development models (smart city concept) envisioned as appropriate solution and promoted as conduit to good quality of life and socio-economic efficiency has been criticised on the ground of its economic imperative and over dependency on highly skilled digital platform to be successful. In this paper, the author proposes sharing city concept as African alternative and supplement to smart city concept. Using smart city potentials and urban challenges discussed around it, the paper adopted a systematic literature review design and evaluated sharing city concept against the backdrop outlined by smart city opponents and urban challenges peculiar to it. The result revealed that sharing city concept could serve as alternative where smart city is not viable and as supplement where it is feasible.