A United Arab Emirates based firm, Cheikh Rakadh Group, has said it will invest $50 million in the recently launched Rwanda Smart City Master Plan.
The agreement, signed during the just-concluded Transform Africa Summit in Kigali, aims at financing the implementation of the Kigali Smart City MasterPlan, local media, the New Times reports.
The agreement also involves City of Kigali authorities and Ngali Holdings Youth and ICT minister Jean-Philbert Nsengimana told The New Times.
The commitment will see the firm identify viable projects within the master plan and bring in technology expertise.
The memorandum of understanding makes room to evaluate viable business models, and costing prior to implementation.
“We will also look at viable business models. Beginning next week [this week], we will identify viable business models, feasibility, costing, among others,” the report quotes Nsengimana say.
During the summit, the Rwandan government also entered into an agreement with Inmarsat, a global mobile satellite communications firm, to launch a series of digital service initiatives across Kigali.
The Africa Transform summit brought together more than 4,000 delegates from 80 countries.
The summit adopted a smart cities master plan, which will act as the guiding tool in the development of smart cities in the continent.
Sao Tome and Tunisia joined the Smart Africa Alliance while Nigeria and Zambia are set to join in coming days.
Among the topics that featured prominently was the possibility of having a One Are Network that spans across the entire continent.
