Boosted by the UAE, professional services firm KPMG shows the MEA Smart Cities market will double from $1.3 billion in 2018 to $2.7 billion by 2022.

Savitha Bhaskar, the COO, at the UAE-based IT infrastructure and information management consultancy and solutions provider Condo Protego, said “the Middle East and Africa’s doubling Smart Cities market underlines how governments are finding the right use cases, funding, and technologies to move Smart City projects into deployment and seeing tangible results.”

Among the biggest drivers of Smart Cities projects are direct and indirect cost benefits. For example, when utilities providers digitize bill payments, direct cost benefits are faster payments and optimized auditing, and indirect cost benefits are residents spending less time traveling to pay bills and happiness in faster payments.

“Smart Cities generate an enormous amount of structured data, such as from sensors, and unstructured data, such as streaming CCTV and social media,” stated Bhaskar.

The UAE leadership is bolstering the Middle East and Africa’s smart cities spending to double to $2.7 billion by 2022.