The African Perspective of a Smart City: Conceptualisation of Context and Relevance

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise and define a Smart City from the African perspectives of context, relevance, and value. The paper is consequentially important because efforts by African countries to develop Smart Cities are being measured by criteria of the Western world. Thus, many African countries are continually challenged in attempts to adopt the concept owing to different interpretations and understandings. Without an empirical basis, the challenges are often associated with the developing nature of the countries and slow technology advancements in the continent. The interpretivist approach was employed to establish factors that define the concept in the African continent. From the analysis, the African perspective of Smart City is defined within context, relevance, and value. This can help governments and citizens in the continent to gain a better understanding and focus on their pursuit and attempts to adopt a Smart City. The factors can also be used to assess and measure the value of the concept from developing countries’ perspective.