Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies is keen to promote smart cities in Africa in order to boost environmental sustainability, an official said on Sunday.

Adam Lane, senior director of public affairs at Huawei Technologies (Kenya) Co., Ltd. told Xinhua in Nairobi that African cities can adopt modern technology in the area of water and energy use, communications, security and safety improvement.

"Huawei is currently in talks with a number of African cities to promote the concept of smart cities," Lane said during the Business Leaders Dialogue ahead of the First Session of the UN-Habitat Assembly.

Huawei is already deploying smart technology in some cities in Kenya, Nigeria and Botswana.

Lane said that smart technology can be used to better monitor use of environmental resource which improves the sustainability of cities.

According to Huawei, through the use of smart meters for water and electricity, African cities can curb wastage as well as improve revenue collections by utilities.

He observed that Africa is experiencing one of the fastest urbanization rates in the world.

"These challenges result in the mushrooming of informal settlements which reduces the quality of lives of urban residents," he added

The Chinese tech giant has also developed innovations to improve the safety of urban residents.

"We have developed advanced communication and coordination centers that improve the response time for police and ambulances during times of emergencies," the Huawei official said.

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