The Rwandan government will be working with Finnish mobile giants Nokia and local company SRG in the deployment of smart city technology solutions throughout the country.
Nokia’s advanced capabilities in this arena will be used to deliver a secure and effective smart city solution for the East African nation, which will include a mission-critical access network, IP and cloud core networks, and Nokia’s ‘impact platform’, which will enable numerous applications related to the internet of things (IoT).
The Rwanda Smart City project will see the government investing in network connectivity and sensor deployment in various applications, which will benefit the people in terms of public safety and waste management, among other areas, according to ITNewsAfrica.
Announcing the partnership, Mohamed Abdelrehim, head of solutions and business development for Nokia in the Middle East and Africa market, expressed excitement at the opportunity to work with the Rwandan government to positively impact the lives of Rwandans through the latest in smart city tech.
“Nokia is a global leader in driving innovation in 5G, the internet of things and smart city solutions, “said Abdelrehim, according to a Nokia statement.
“This project is in line with our vision to use technology innovation to create social sustainability and make people’s lives better and safer,” he added.
“As the strategic technical partner, we are proud to be associated with a progressive project that will enhance the digital economy for African countries. It is projects of this nature, supported and driven by government, that will make a real difference in enhancing people’s lives, creating jobs and improving economies – in this case, the economy of Rwanda,” he concluded.
Jean Philbert Nsengimana, the minister of youth and ICT for Rwanda, believes that his country can provide a blueprint for other African nations aiming to develop smart cities.
“It is our vision as a country to position Rwanda as a technology hub, by using ICT innovation to provide a better quality of life to our citizens and visitors. Rwanda is a pioneer in deploying Smart City Solution in Africa,” said Nsengimana, according to IT-Online.
Through this project, we will not only improve people’s day to day lives with improved services and security, but we do anticipate long-term positive socio-economic benefits for the people in Rwanda and we also plan to share our experience with many other countries in Africa,” he added.
Nokia is not new to the Africa in terms of its efforts to boost the digital economy of the continent through innovative tech initiatives.
The Finnish mobile company is the primary sponsor of a 100-day continent-wide bus tour known as CodeBus Africa, which works in partnership with local schools and companies, as well as official Finnish government representation, in order to run computer programming classes to teach the youth how to code.
The initiative officially began in February, and ended last week in South Africa after conducting creative coding workshops throughout Namibia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, according to ITWeb.
