will technology in fact help to overcome the formalinformal and richpoor dualisms facing african cities or to deepen them african cities are well positioned to avoid the mistakes and negative externalities dampening growth and social development in cities in the americas and asia the new african city can be smarter and more efficient avoiding the costly retrofitting required in many of the world s more recently established cities african countries tend to have very low carbon footprints with many countries emitting less than ton per capita under the right policies carbon emissions will not have the same relationship with economic growth as seen in the americas and asia