| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Eko Atlantic is a city that rises "like Aphrodite from the foam of the Atlantic," wrote Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka. The city is defined by sustainability, luxury, technology, and economic opportunity. It is Africa's own Dubai; a gleaming gateway to the continent that will revolutionize the city of Lagos, solidifying its place as West Africa's financial center. The private development, which is located on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean along
Lagos' upscale Bar Beach coastline, is predicted to house 400,000 residents and to provide over 150,000 jobs. Eko Atlantic is ushering in a wave of futuristic African cities. These modern satellite cities are built on the edge of existing metropolises in the hopes of transforming the country's economy and its role in the global marketplace. For example, developers are building Hope City outside Accra and Konza Techno City, known as "Africa's Silicon Savannah," outside Nairobi, in the hopes to turn Ghana and Kenya respectively into major players in the technology industry. African urbanization is occurring at a breakneck pace, and if done right, presents a valuable and unique opportunity to create jobs and lift millions out of poverty. However, if done wrong, the urban poor could become increasingly marginalized as slums are cleared to make way for housing they cannot afford and the mobile upper class migrates to upscale edge cities such as Eko Atlantic. Africa has the chance to urbanize in a way that increases the total populace's aggregate quality of life rather than deepening the divide between the tiny elite and the vast urban poor, but corruption and poor urban planning must first be overcome.
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