The International Institute for the Development of Management (IMD) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) have published the Smart City Index 2020. The Index is the ranking of the 109 smartest cities in the world. This year like last, six African cities appeared in the list.

“It is of course too early to draw the lessons from COVID. However, it is clear that we are at a critical juncture, where the sanitary crisis is still very much with us, while the economic and social crisis that it will entail has hardly started. This year’s Smart City Index suggests that the cities that have been able to combine technologies, leadership and a strong culture of ‘living and acting together’ should be able to better withstand the most damaging effects of such crises.” Said Bruno Lanvin, President of the IMD Smart City Observatory.

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Here Is What You Need To Know

To establish their index, IMD and SUTD assessed residents’ perceptions of technological structures and applications. These are the two main categories of criteria. The first relates to the infrastructure of the cities and the second refers to the technological arrangements and services available.

African cities Smart City Index 2020

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The fields of application of these criteria are security, activities, mobility, governance, health and opportunities. On this basis, the cities that have managed to rise to the top are Singapore, Helsinki (Finland), Zurich (Switzerland), Auckland (New Zealand) and Oslo (Norway).

In contrast, the six African cities of the Smart City Index 2020 are at the back of the pack. These are Cape Town in South Africa which is in 103rd place, Rabat, in Morocco (105th), Cairo, in Egypt (106th), Abuja (107th) and Lagos (109th) in Nigeria, and Nairobi, in Kenya (108th).

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer