Clean City IoT: A Rwandan innovation turning air quality data into social impact

His session, titled “CleanCity IoT: Leveraging IoT Mobile Networks for Urban Air Quality Insights in Rwanda,” showcased a cutting-edge solution to a very old and persistent problem: urban air pollution.

Developed by the University of Rwanda in partnership with local and regional collaborators, the CleanCity IoT initiative was piloted in Kigali and several secondary cities, offering a scalable model for African cities confronting worsening air quality.

A Global Health Crisis with Local Consequences

According to data presented in Dr. Nizeyimana’s slides, air pollution ranks among the top 10 global societal challenges, contributing to over 7 million deaths annually.

As cited by the World Health Organization (WHO), 90% of the global population is exposed to unhealthy air daily.

His slide deck broke down the burden of disease linked to air pollution:

• 34% of deaths from ischemic heart disease
• 21% from pneumonia
• 20% from stroke
• 19% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• 7% from lung cancer

Dr. Nizeyimana emphasized that both long-term exposure (“accumulation over time”) and short-term pollution spikes have unique health impacts.

One slide warned: “Spikes have different shapes (patterns), causing different health problems. It highlighted the inadequacy of current responses, stating that spike emitters weren’t penalized accordingly.

The presentation contextualized this within Rwanda’s urban centers, where urban air pollution is a growing challenge and traditional centralized monitoring systems are expensive and limited in coverage.

This created a clear need for a real-time, scalable, and cost-effective solution,  which the CleanCity IoT platform aims to deliver.

A snapshot from the presentation “CleanCity IoT: Leveraging IoT Mobile Networks for Urban Air Quality Insights in Rwanda,” showing where the IoT is installed in a car

CleanCity IoT: Real-Time Air Quality Monitoring via Mobile Networks

Developed by the University of Rwanda and partners, CleanCity IoT is a “scalable framework using IoT and mobile networks” to monitor urban air quality in real time. The platform employs:

• Low-cost sensors
• Microcontrollers (ESP32)
• GSM modules
• Cloud-based data aggregation
• Machine learning pipelines for time-series analysis

The pilot implementation in Kigali and secondary cities deployed these compact sensor systems on mobile units like cars, which enabled wide-area air quality mapping during movement.

Pollutants monitored include PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, CO, SO₂, and O₃, with all data being location-tagged for spatial analysis.

The real-time data feeds into an online dashboard, and the system architecture includes an “Alerts System” and “Report Generator” that notify stakeholders, especially policymakers, of pollution hotspots and abnormal spikes.

Social Investment Potential: A Model for Africa

What makes CleanCity IoT especially significant is its alignment with social investment principles—solutions that address social issues while also strengthening public infrastructure, skills, and institutions.

1. Public Health Impact Through Data Access

The real-time data system provides “pollution maps and alerts” to inform citizens of their environmental exposure.

This enables Rwandans—especially vulnerable groups—to take precautions in their daily lives.

CleanCity IoT thus offers a direct health benefit by helping people avoid high-risk zones or modify activities during high-pollution periods.

2. Civic Engagement and Awareness

Another core feature is the “online dashboard for citizen access,” which fosters environmental awareness and community engagement.

Dr. Nizeyimana’s slides noted that transparency and accessibility help “promote environmental awareness,” transforming passive residents into active stakeholders in environmental protection.

3. Cost-Efficient and Scalable Infrastructure

One of the most attractive features for policymakers and investors is the system’s ability to leverage existing mobile network infrastructure, meaning there’s “no need for proprietary networks.”

This dramatically reduces setup costs and supports nationwide scalability, making it ideal for replication in other low-resource contexts across Africa.

4. Policy Support and Accountability

The CleanCity IoT architecture is built to assist regulatory enforcement.

The “Alerts System” and “Report Generator” equip authorities with actionable data, enabling them to develop evidence-based interventions such as emission regulations or zoning controls.

With accurate, timestamped spike data, there is finally the potential to penalize spike emitters accordingly.

5. Building African Innovation Capacity

The initiative reflects a broader investment in homegrown technology and skill development.

The project was supported by the PASET Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund (RSIF), which aims to bridge Africa’s skills gap in applied sciences, engineering, and technology, among other key partners.

By applying real-world technology like IoT, data analytics, and AI, CleanCity IoT empowers local researchers and engineers to tackle local problems with global significance.

Lessons and Blueprint for the Future

The pilot deployments in Kigali and secondary cities have proven that the system is reliable, low-maintenance, and cost-effective.

As the final slides summarized, CleanCity IoT demonstrates “high performance”, with a system designed for scalable deployment and citizen empowerment through real-time data.

Several key lessons emerge:

• Use existing infrastructure to reduce deployment costs and improve reach.
• Prioritize data transparency for both citizens and policymakers.
• Invest in local skills and innovation to build resilient systems.
• Engage the public as a critical partner in environmental change.

In an era where air pollution is increasingly a silent killer, Rwanda’s CleanCity IoT is more than a technological achievement—it’s a vision for African cities to reclaim their right to breathe clean air through smart, inclusive, and locally-led innovation.