He notes that up to 13% of the tech hubs in Africa have established partnerships with mobile operators, particularly Orange (France), MTN (SA) and Vodafone (UK).

"There is a range of smart city initiatives taking place across the African continent, from technology hubs like Ghana's Hope City to business and residential areas, like Johannesburg's Waterfall City and Lagos' Eko Atlantic," notes Burton.

South Africa's Cape Town and Kenya's Nairobi are tipped to become the first cities to achieve this 'smart status'.

merging markets, like those in Africa, have the opportunity to leapfrog now-redundant technologies in developed nations and create truly smart cites.

“With our innovations and investment in various technologies, we develop an open platform for Smart Cities, which is compatible with various devices and supports a wide range of applications. We aim to be the rich soil that supports the robust and sustainable development of Smart Cities.  We will continue to work together with our ecosystem of partners to create top-level designs addressing city administrators’ needs and achieving the ultimate goals of a Smart City – to enable good governance, promote industry development and deliver benefits for communities,” concludes Diender.

mart city initiatives often focus on improvements around infrastructure and healthcare, but Huawei advocates a “first safe then smart” approach that emphasises public safety as a starting point.

ities globally have common objectives regarding the safety, healthcare, and education of their communities, as well as the delivery of services in the form of utilities and transportation networks. The growth of ICT is enabling cities to better meet these objectives, allowing for smart solutions that aim at developing the urban ecosystem while managing assets and resources efficiently. “There is no clear definition for what constitutes a smart city, but typically we think of it as a city that “gets you” and addresses needs and challenges in an intelligent way,” says Diender. “For example, it’s a platform that links initiatives by government, giving insight to officials who need to anticipate challenges and take action, while driving things forward in an accessible way.” An example of this might be street lights with built-in motion sensors that allow the lights to turn off and save power until movement of a vehicle or pedestrian is detected. “These motion sensors might take the form of a camera, which could also act as an additional eye for the police,” adds Diender. “If you add advanced image recognition to those cameras, they could even detect flooding in the streets and identify water leaks. In this instance, you’ll have one smart device talking to three industries – security, lighting, and water.”

South Africa is ideally suited to adopt smart city technologies, with the potential to leapfrog international counterparts and lead a new generation of thinking. This is according to Edwin Diender, Vice President, Government and Public Utility Sector, Huawei Enterprise Business Group.