By Prince Osuagwu (Hi-Tech Editor) (Who was in Nairobi, Kenya)

More than 200 global   Information and Communication Technology, ICT experts  including industry analysts in the public safety sector, who attended Huawei’s first Safe  City Africa Summit in Nairobi Kenya, last weekend, unanimously agreed that it was time African countries invested heavily into the safety of their cities.

DISCUSSIONPANEL: From left—Independent Public Safety Consultant, Peter Goulding; Global Chief Public Safety Expert, EBG, Huawei, Koh Hong Eng; Director for Security and Critical Communications Research, HIS, Thomas Lynch; Head, Special Project, Safaricom Limited, Shaka Kwach; former President, Interpol, Khoo Boon Hui, and a Kenyan government official, at the summit.

The prescription was following  rapidly increasing organised crimes, like cybercrimes and terrorism as well as disasters. They noted that these problems,  have created a situation where public safety has  become critical  for governments, particularly in Africa and worldwide.

Their views were that protecting citizens’ lives and properties can only be  sustained by building safe cities that are able to withstand external attacks.

Huawei, a  global ICT solutions provider, at  the  summit  entitled “Leading New ICT, Making Cities Safer”, also showcased Safe City best practices in cities like Nairobi and Mombasa, and gave attendees the latest insights on industry trends and opportunities in the new ICT era.

As part of its strategy of industry collaboration to drive innovative Safe City solutions, Huawei also demonstrated its new 4G and cloud-based smart Safe City solution, co-developed with partners, and shared other partner innovations successfully deployed in Africa.

The company also displayed its new smart Safe City solution, co-developed by its partners . The solution consists of the world’s first visualized and converged command system, the industry’s first 4G professional trunking system, world-leading cross-region and cross-agency video cloud, and business-driven Safe City ICT infrastructure.

Kenya is the continent’s economic and tourism hub, so it came as no surprise when the government of Kenya said it embraced Safe City solutions as a national strategy to maintain position as the heart of Africa.

Huawei said it had teamed up with Safaricom to implement the first phase of Kenya’s Safe City project with new ICT, covering the most densely populated cities of Nairobi and Mombasa. It claimed that following the completion of the projects, these cities improved their local security and according to the Kenya Police annual report, crime  rates from 2014 to 2015 decreased by 46% in areas covered by the Safe City project.

Kicking off presentations at the summit, President of marketing & solution sales , Huawei Enterprise Business Group, Ms. Diana Yuan, said that “public safety is gradually becoming a necessity to raise living standards for everyone. You can personally experience practical applications of Safe City solutions.

Adhering to the principle of customer centricity, Huawei cooperates with partners and customers to build smarter, safer, and better connected Cities with our new ICT infrastructure featuring Cloud-Pipe-Device integration. Huawei’s Safe City solutions will comprehensively improve city management and contribute to city safety and prosperity in African countries.”

Safe City in the New ICT Era

Also, Head of ICT, United Nations Human Settlement Programme, UN-Habitat, Mr. Kamal Naim stated in his keynote speech that a safer city is grounded on three main pillars of prevention that embrace a holistic as Law enforcement and CJS reform Social Prevention Urban Design, integrated and multi-sectorial approach to improving the liveability of cities and quality of life for all urban residents, predicated on the confidence that good urban governance, planning and management can improve the neighborhoods’ safety.

In his keynote speech titled “Safe Cities: Driven by a Technology Revolution, Director of Critical Communications for a research company, IHS Markit, Mr.  Thomas Lynch, shared insights into how public safety is a comprehensive system where traditional video surveillance, voice dispatching, Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD), Geographic Information System (GIS), and call-taking and dispatching systems are closely integrated to enable threat awareness, early warning, and incident management throughout the whole process.

In the company’s latest research, the market scale of public safety equipment is estimated to increase from USD13 billion in 2015 to USD20 billion in 2020.

That was also as Huawei’s Global Chief Public Safety Expert, Mr. Hong-Eng Koh, said that while intelligent video surveillance, broadband trunked radio and computer aided dispatch are crucial, they are not enough to create a Safe City. There is a need for policing cloud to link up the silos of different public safety agencies for better information sharing and user experience.

“With the exponential growth of data from traditional policing records, video surveillance, social networks and the Internet of Things, Big Data analytics are important too. “Together these technologies can help in threats prevention, and if not preventable, early detection for faster response and recovery; with the aim of reducing loss of life and property, and bringing justice and normalcy to society” he added.

Giving account of how Safaricom partnered in the safe city project, Head of Special Projects department, Shaka Kwach said the deployments of Huawei’s Safe City solution in Nairobi and Mombasa has drastically improved criminal investigation, cross-agency collaboration, and emergency response efficiency for the  National  Police Service.

He claimed that this has resulted in tangible benefits to both the citizens of Kenya, as well as the officers using the solution. Safaricom is the largest comprehensive telecommunications service provider of Kenya.

Meanwhile, Chief Engineer of Shanghai DS Communication Equipment Co., Ltd., Lei Ting,   introduced architectural features of the next-generation Converged Emergency Command System jointly innovated by Huawei and DS. This system has also been successfully deployed in Nairobi, Kenya.

Huawei said it has worked with more than 100 partners, over 550 certified service partners, and more than 120 authorized service partners in the ICT field all over the globe, forming the framework of a new Safe City ecosystem.