  The "Smart City" (SC) concept has been around for decades with deployment
scenarios revealed in major cities of developed countries. However, while SC
has enhanced the living conditions of city dwellers in the developed world, the
concept is still either missing or poorly deployed in the developing world.
This paper presents a review of the SC concept from the perspective of its
application to cities in developing nations, the opportunities it avails, and
challenges related to its applicability to these cities. Building upon a
systematic review of literature, this paper shows that there are neither
canonical definitions, models or frameworks of references for the SC concept.
This paper also aims to bridge the gap between the "smart city" and "smart
village" concepts, with the expectation of providing a holistic approach to
solving common issues in cities around the world. Drawing inspiration from
other authors, we propose a conceptual model for a SC initiative in Africa and
demonstrate the need to prioritize research and capacity development. We also
discuss the potential opportunities for such SC implementations in sub-Saharan
Africa. As a case study, we consider the city of Lubumbashi in the Democratic
Republic of Congo and discuss ways of making it a smart city by building around
successful smart city initiatives. It is our belief that for Lubumbashi, as
with any other city in Sub-Saharan Africa, the first step to developing a smart
city is to build knowledge and create an intellectual capital.
