In conjunction with the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are being held in Marrakech,Morocco, until 15 October 2023, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is organising the Voice of Africa. The event is led by its president, Hicham El Habti, former General Secretary of the OCP Group. He spoke to AFRIK 21 about the role of technology in sustainable urban development on the continent.
In conjunction with the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are being held in Marrakech,Morocco, until 15 October 2023, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is organising the Voice of Africa. The event is led by its president, Hicham El Habti, former General Secretary of the OCP Group. He spoke to AFRIK 21 about the role of technology in sustainable urban development on the continent.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi: Could you tell us about the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), its mission, staff and budget?
Hicham El Habti: The UM6P’s mission is to teach young people to think for themselves, to equip them to come up with solutions for the development of the African continent. For the start of the 2023 academic year, we have around 6,000 students, half of whom are in coding professions, to respond effectively to the global shortage in this specific field. There is a wide range of young people, particularly from Morocco and other sub-Saharan African countries. Nearly 720 doctoral students are divided between the main site at Ben Guerir and the subsidiary campuses in Rabat and Laayoune. The main fields of study include engineering, governance and medicine, supervised by 250 permanent researchers. The operating budget is in the region of one hundred million dollars.
Morocco is currently hosting the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF. As part of this event, the UM6P is organising the “Voice of Africa”, which has attracted the world’s leading economists, political decision-makers and entrepreneurs. What are the aims and particular features of such a meeting, particularly in terms of sustainable development?
Our point of view is that Africa will pull through thanks to science, research and the universe. So our objective today is to encourage participants to see the opportunities on the African continent. We need to develop predictive models and innovations for a new way of farming, better management of the continent’s natural resources, and the development of a value chain to transform what we produce on our territories. This is the objective behind the organisation of “Voice of Africa“, which focuses on four themes: food security, which is the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2), entrepreneurship, the African diaspora and its contribution to innovation, and cultural industries.
We visited the Ben Guerir campus, which is one of the largest in Morocco (33 hectares). It houses research centres, recreational areas and even a hotel. What is being done to ensure that these premises are environmentally friendly?
Our buildings are the first to be awarded LEED certification for energy efficiency. This means that our energy requirements are much lower than those of conventional buildings. By 2025, we will be powered 100% by renewable energy. At present, we have 40% capacity for solar solutions. Then, as far as water is concerned, we use water from the wastewater treatment plant in the town of Ben Guerir to preserve the water table. But the most important thing is the message we get across to students as soon as they join the UM6P, particularly about how to be environmentally friendly.
You recently launched a Masters programme in smart cities in partnership with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). What is the purpose of this course, and what opportunities does it offer?
The graduates of this programme will work, for example, in urban agencies that have to design the cities of the future. Africa is going to experience huge demographic growth, and we need to prepare well for this. Support in terms of thinking about and implementing a new type of city. We can no longer have cities that cannot adapt to climate change in terms of water and energy needs. So the objective is to design intelligent cities that can accommodate the significant demographic growth that the African continent will experience over the next twenty or thirty years. An intelligent city implies the presence of sensors just about everywhere. In concrete terms, the intelligent solution should be able to detect if there is a surplus of energy production in a house and direct it elsewhere. The technology should also enable road traffic to flow more smoothly, thereby reducing journey times. As for construction, the focus will be on the choice of energy-efficient materials.
Do you think that Africa needs to develop smart cities today if it is to achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030? If so, what can digital technology do for people in their daily lives?
In agriculture, we can scan the soil using satellite images without having to go there to find out exactly what the organic matter is made up of. But it takes very powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models to achieve this level of computing power. Once you have these satellite images, and therefore the data, you’ll know whether you need to grow wheat or some other crop. You’ll even get an idea of what nutrients are needed, rather than just applying fertiliser randomly to the soil. All of this, of course, means greater productivity and the preservation of the most important asset for a small farmer. It also creates job opportunities for young people, who need to be in touch with these small-scale farmers to guide them in selling and storing their produce.
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Is there a concrete technological solution that has come out of your laboratories that really helps to improve day-to-day problems?
There’s the “Freedge” start-up run by two Moroccan women and a Togolese man. Together, the three students, aged between 21 and 22, have put their physics course knowledge into practice to design a solar fridge that runs on water and solar energy. This equipment enables farmers who have no access to electricity to store food, given that they sometimes lose up to 70% of their crops. In the end, the project became a very successful company in which UM6P is a shareholder, and it succeeded in raising a lot of funds and winning several awards.
To date, which two Moroccan and African cities seem to you to be on the right track in terms of ecological transition?
I would say Ben Guerir, where green projects are multiplying. I would also mention Benin, which is implementing the Sème city project (in Cotonou, editor’s note), with which we have a partnership.
Interview by Benoit-Ivan Wansi, special correspondent in Morocco.
