Rwanda’s clean, green and traffic congestion-free capital Kigali came in third in the region, at position 190, having improved two positions, while Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam followed Kigali at position 199.
A new global ranking has placed Kampala as the best city to live in in East Africa, leaving the fabled Kigali a distant third with Nairobi in second position.
Uganda capital, famed for its abundance in choices of goods and services, was ranked 172nd of 231 cities globally by the New York-based consultancy firm, Mercer, beating the region’s economy powerbase city of Nairobi.
While Kampala improved one place in the Mercer ranking, the Kenyan capital remains rooted in the same 186th position in as far as offering quality of life is concerned.
Rwanda’s clean, green and traffic congestion-free capital Kigali came in third in the region, at position 190, having improved two positions, while Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam followed Kigali at position 199.
Port Louis, Mauritius (83) is the highest ranking African city for quality of living followed by the Durban, South Africa (89), Cape Town, South Africa (94) and Johannesburg, South Africa (95).
Still from Africa, N’Djamena, Chad (226), Khartoum, Sudan (227) and Bangui, Central African Republic (230) are the lowest ranked.
Mercer produces worldwide Quality of Living rankings annually from its Worldwide Quality of Living Surveys. Individual reports are produced for each city surveyed.
According to the consultancy firm, data was analysed between September and November 2017, and it will be updated regularly to account for changing circumstances. In particular, the assessments will be revised to reflect significant political, economic, and environmental developments.
For the ninth consecutive year, Vienna tops our Quality of Living ranking, and other Western European cities continue to dominate the top of the list. An important role in a city’s attractiveness for talent and business is sanitation, Honolulu ranked 1st in the Sanitation ranking.
Disclaimer
To rank the cities, the survey examined the levels of traffic congestion, quality of public transport, electricity supply and banking services.
Other indicators include crime levels, education, political stability, housing, food availability and entertainment.
It also guides multinationals in their assessment of the pay for their staff in different countries in which they have operations.
Factors such as climate, disease and sanitation standards, ease of communications, and physical remoteness can often affect the success of a foreign assignment, the report adds.
However, the irony is that the consultancy firm has a disclaimer: that information and data obtained through the Quality of Living reports are for information purposes only and are intended for use by multinational organisations, government agencies, and municipalities.
“They are not designed or intended for use as the basis for foreign investment or tourism,” the report, released last week, says.
The disclaimer dampens would-be suggestions that a city that is highly ranked for living in would attract more investments and tourists.
Indeed, the use of traffic congestion as an index would ideally leave Kampala’s traffic menace in shame as much as it does a disservice to Nairobi, not so for Kigali.