Programme

Urban Innovation Empowering African Cities

13:00 - 14:00, Thursday, January 14, 2021 (CET)

This session will showcase the Urban Links Africa methodology used to address urban challenges in South Africa and Kenya. This will be followed by a dialogue about the future of digitalisation in African cities and a panel discussion with global businesses and city representatives addressing the implementation of innovative solutions in the African context.

Organised by Connected Places Catapult.

Speakers

Ajiv Maharaj

Director of Economic Development

City of Durban

South Africa

Ajiv MAHARAJ is an Urban Economist and Urban Planner who holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning and a PhD in Economic Geography. He is currently Deputy Head of the Economic Development and Investment Promotion Unit at the Durban Metro, and heads the research, policy, strategy and innovation department. His interests are in urban economics and city strategy.
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Dr Moges Tadesse

Chief Resilience Officer

City of Addis Ababa

Ethiopia

Dr. Moges Tadesse is an academician, researcher and development practitioner with over 20 years of experience. He is an Economist by training and specializes in development policies and strategies for poverty reduction, diversified livelihoods, and food security in both rural and urban areas across Ethiopia.

Currently Dr. Moges, as a Chief Resilience Officer (CRO), is leading the Addis Ababa City Resilience Project Office for which he is responsible for the implementation of the city resilience strategy, undertaking resilient action research, preparation of bankable proposals, working in collaboration with stakeholders, partners and donors to realize the vision of making Addis Ababa safe, livable, and prosperous City.
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Geofrey Ochieng

Chief Officer - Housing and Urban Development

City of Kisumu

Kenya
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Dr Amy Hochadel

Director of Global Business

Connected Places Catapult

United Kingdom

Dr Hochadel is an expert in global cities and the Director of Global Business at Connected Places Catapult in London, England. She works with local leaders, entrepreneurs, city and national governments around the world, including the Gulf states, India, Malaysia, Africa, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Dr Hochadel has over two decades of experience in politics & public policy and community, government and international relations. She has served as special adviser to Congressional and Presidential candidates across the United States, as well as for British Members of Parliament; has been a guest lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; and proudly serves as a member of the United Nations Global Happiness policy sub-committee.
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Akira Saito

Head of Innovation

Digital Transformation Div, SB Telecom Europe

United Kingdom

Experienced new business development manager with a history of leading cross-border trades, digital transformation projects and partnerships. Enthusiastic and skilled in international sales & marketing and creating an ecosystem via data-driven approach and insights. Aside from enjoying the thrill of new business development, he has a strong interest in innovation and opportunity discovery in Africa and wishes to take part in CITYxCITY discussion to create a Pan African network with like-minded people, municipalities and companies.
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Kennedy Mubita

SC Ventures Lead Africa Middle East

Standard Chartered Bank

Kenya

Kennedy is the Africa and Middle East Lead at SC Ventures a business unit of Standard Chartered Bank that is responsible for enabling digital transformation across the group including creating new business models and investing in disruptive financial technology.

He is based at the Nairobi based eXellerator lab that incubates tech ideation in the Africa Middle East region working closely with Stanchart’s country leadership teams, clients and the Fintech community applying a technology driven mindset and human-centred design (HCD) methodology to industry problems generating relevant value propositions for these markets.
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Urban Innovation Empowering African Cities

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