African cities have been integrating SMART technologies in their management at different scales, including:

• By developing projects based on the use of tools such as Google Maps, GSM or more complex Geographic Information Systems (GIS), that enable cities to gather data and better visualize the dynamics of their territories.
  
• By deploying SMART applications that aim at increasing citizens’ participation in services management, mainly composed of tools to report incidences or corruption (for example Kigali, Rwanda)
  
• By deploying SMART systems that enable municipalities to remotely control their street lighting systems which make it easier to achieve important cost savings (for example Salé, Morocco).
  
• By deploying SMART tools to improve tax and fees collection such as Mobile Money. Many African cities have followed the example of Nairobi, Kenya that uses the Mpesa mobile money system to collect tax revenues or tariff bills for services such as electricity or water, which is particularly interesting for people working in the informal economy in that they save precious time that otherwise would have been spent in lining up in front of billing offices at the municipality or the service provider premises. The use of these technologies has drastically improved revenue collection in African cities, thus contributing to widening their financial autonomy vis-à-vis the national governments.
  

Municipal finance in the African is still a challenging topic as in several countries decentralization is still incomplete. This is particularly true in francophone countries where the Ministries of Finance usually have the responsibility to collect taxes and redistribute them to local governments. Besides a lack of autonomy, African cities often lack technical (institutional and human resources) and financial capacities to lead reforms to improve municipal finance management. For instance, several secondary African cities still lack electricity which is the necessary basis for any ICT infrastructure, and even in those cities with electricity, bandwidth is not sufficient to support SMART projects based on big data for example. Which means that, if local governments want to improve tax collection with ICT, they need to make an arrangement with the Ministry of Finances, which may represent at the same time an opportunity to strengthen their capacity and a challenge in additional bureaucracy. The city of Cotonou, Benin has implemented such arrangements. Although SMART projects are mostly led at national government level, it is important to empower local governments and avoid having all decisions taken at national level thus disempowering local administration.

Besides all the positive impact SMART technologies and the increased access to information that comes with it can have in municipal administration, they must be used wisely and cities must be prepared:

• African cities, which often lack the capacity to carry on complex technological projects, generally turn to the private sector that offers a wide variety of SMART solutions. However, big multinational companies tend to offer cities ready-to-use solutions considered to be applicable in any context. However, disparities amongst African cities are huge and a tool that may be suitable for Dakar or Johannesburg may not be adaptable to Bangui or Douala. As such, it is important that when partnering with private sector companies, local governments make sure to choose a solution that is adaptable to their needs in financial and technical capacities, as well as ensure that contracts benefit both parties, and include local companies to ensure the contracts contribute to local economic development.
  
• Local governments must complement technological tools with other elements to improve revenue collection. In particular, they must create a culture of paying taxes, and this can be done by showing to citizens the return on their investment. This could include, among others, campaigns to show why residents have to pay their taxes and how tax proceeds are being used; create opportunities for citizens to participate in decision making processes.
  
• Cities should start with building their internal capacities before launching any SMART projects. This means investing in IT infrastructure, and starting with small projects instead of betting on highly complex technological projects. But it also means investing in human skills by offering training to municipal employees in order to ensure appropriate usage of technical equipment. Local governments should also think about other ways of motivating public officials and encourage a mindset change towards greater endorsement of innovation in municipal management.
  
• Cities must use SMART tools following the principles of transparency and integrity and show how resources are being used for the collective good.
  
• Local governments can see in SMART technologies an opportunity to increase the democratic debate, to increase citizen participation. However, it is important that SMART tools do not substitute public deliberation as technologies will not be able to solve conflicts of interest. In addition, they must be careful in the relationship they build with residents; these must not be seen as mere users of products, and SMART technologies should not be a tool for local governments to control their citizen.
  

In 2013, UCLG Africa started a cooperation with Microsoft, with the goal to contribute to the development of African cities and to strengthen the governance and municipal management with the usage of ICT. The partnership projected to implement the CityNext initiative in pilot African cities to improve citizen engagement in local management and to better answer citizens’ expectations. CityNext combines Cloud and Smartphone technologies with big data and social media analytics, and offer to municipalities an ecosystem of solutions to connect and fluidize data circulation between city services. A pilot-project was implemented in Kigali, Rwanda, where an application was created to allow municipal employees and citizens to report incidents and problems in services and infrastructures by taking pictures geotagged in a digitized map. This represents a big advantage to municipalities who can better know the state of municipal assets, and plan quicker interventions and repairs, which will in turn, reduce management costs while improving services’ quality. However, African cities still face important obstacles to implement this type of project, as they do not always have the capacities to answer to all incidents reported, which can generate frustrations for the citizen or the municipal employee. As a consequence, it is important to demystify the usage of technologies as a miracle solution for urban management. If ICT can help governments to better know the dynamics of their territory and encourage citizen participation, they are not enough per se, and municipalities must make sure to have financial and technical means before initiating any SMART project.