Kigali has emerged as Africa's premier smart city among the 30 cities that participated in the assessment, according to the 2023 African Smart City Index.

The index was unveiled on Wednesday, September 6, at Serena Hotel during the Africa Smart City Investment Summit held in Kigali.

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Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, secured the second spot, while Nairobi, Kenya, clinched the third position as a smart city.

Cape Town in South Africa and Accra in Ghana secured the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

In the top 10 rankings, other cities included Lagos in Nigeria, Rabat in Morocco, Port Louis in Mauritius, Cairo in Egypt, and Johannesburg in South Africa.

These cities were also categorized and evaluated in various aspects.

Kigali took the top spot in the e-governance category, secured the second position in the living and well-being promotion category, and ranked third in the environment protection and integration category.

Nairobi claimed the first place in the economy and innovation category, Cape Town led in the Mobility and Access Category, Tunis topped the Living and Wellbeing category, and Port Louis secured the first position in the environment and integration category.

The Africa Smart and Sustainable Cities Index aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the progress made by African cities in their journey towards becoming smart and sustainable.

Organizers emphasized that while other global city indexes exist, they often lack sufficient coverage of African cities and fail to account for the unique challenges and opportunities that cities in Africa face.

The summit, which has convened 1,000 participants, aims to foster public-private partnerships, showcase smart city solutions, and identify investment opportunities that could lead to thriving and sustainable African cities.

During the summit, The City of Kigali extended an invitation to investors to invest in scaling up smart city solutions.

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Pudence Rubingisa, the Mayor of the City of Kigali, stressed, "There is a pressing need for investment in areas such as transport, waste management, and service delivery, among others. Several solutions require scaling up, and therefore, we brought together investors, financial institutions, and others to the summit to connect with the developers of these smart solutions."

The urgency for scaling up smart solutions arises from the projection that Kigali's population is expected to surpass three million by 2030, a significant increase from the current 1.7 million, as indicated in the fifth Rwanda Population and Housing Census (RPHC5).

The launch of the Smart City Hub Rwanda is aligned with the country's vision to test, scale, and promote cutting-edge solutions for future cities.

Paula Musoni Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation, said, "The Smart City Hub we are launching today aligns with our country's vision to test, scale, and promote cutting-edge solutions. We hope that through this hub, collaborations will emerge to support these solutions in transforming Rwanda into a smart city. Furthermore, the lessons learned can be shared with other African cities."