Africa is the emerging giant tech hub of the world.

The evidence is everywhere: from news of a US$360 million Chinese investment in Nigeria's Fintech industry; to news that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will spend up to six months a year in Africa because Africa he says, “will define the future.'' By the turn of the century, a third of all people will be African. Africa’s population will grow from its 1.2 billion today to 4.5 billion in the next 80 years. Nigeria will be home to 400 million people. This is double the number who live here right now. More than 60 per cent of these people will be city-dwellers or urbanites.

Lagos, a 110 square kilometre coastal city, is home to more than 17 million. The Lagos population will grow to more than 100 million by the turn of the century. Yet, Nigeria with a population of close to 200 million people has only seven cities accommodating more than a million people each.

Contrast this to India’s 46 cities with populations greater than a million, and China with more than 100 cities of at least a million people each.

Africa has an opportunity to build more sustainable cities for exponential population growth, but governments lack time and money to build them. This is why my team and I are building Talent City: a charter city focused on attracting the talent that drives technology, innovation and the digital economy.

This will be a charter city focused on creating technology-enabled jobs and managed within a free trade zone with its own productivity-focused, entrepreneurial-centred regulations and bylaws.

Nigeria's free trade zone laws give us a blank canvas to develop policies that are data-driven and evidence-based – free of complex socio-political or economically protectionist considerations. Doing this will ensure the appropriate policy environment for the best of African technology and innovation to emerge and flourish in this zone.

It’s this model that enabled Shenzhen and Dalian to emerge as manufacturing capitals of the world, and Bangalore and Hyderabad to become the outsourcing capital of the world. This charter city model, already applied to good effect in cities around the world from Dubai to Kigali, will enable governance innovation that will unlock the potential of the continent. In the end, our hope is that by doing this we can build prototype homes for a future where at the turn of the century Africa's 4.5 billion people can lead lives where purpose and prosperity is within everyone's reach.

I’ll be sharing more about what we’re doing at the inaugural Charter Cities Conference. The Conference takes place on 17 and 18 March 2020 in Johannesburg. For more information, please visit chartercitiesconference.com

If you have an interest in partnering with us to plan, build or fund our first Talent City please reach out to us at community@future.africa

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