The president’s dream is no big surprise, since the ultimate goal of a smart city is to deliver enhanced quality of life for citizens, along with tangible benefits at all levels of government. A smart city is about ensuring common objectives like safety and security, or the provision of services in the form of utilities and transportation networks.

Clive Charlton, head of Solution Architecture for Sub-Saharan Africa at AWS, says that from a public sector perspective, there is certainly an appetite for local smart cities. This appetite has only increased since AWS launched its local hyperscale datacentre in Cape Town.