The city of KSA (Kingdom of Saudia Arabia, Riyadh), offers the highest internet speed that is more than any other city (Dubai and Kuwait) offering in the Middle East and North African region, as suggested by Sortlist SME Guide. According to Sortlist, MENA in 2022 raised $323.7 million across 66 deals based on startups, where most active foreign investors are from the US.

Riyadh is proven to be the best city in the MENA region that promotes start-ups. The average broadband speed is 94.64 Mbps which is higher than the other most, with a literacy rate of 95 percent. Also, in the MENA region, Riyadh has the most happiness ratings with a score of 6.49/10. The electricity consumption cost is just only 4.2 p/kWh.

After that at the second number, Dubai, Emirate of UAE has internet download speed with an average of 189.07 Mbps which is larger than the other cities in MENA. That’s why Dubai is ideal for hybrid working and provides great opportunities for entrepreneurs to have their businesses set up in Dubai and work with international clients and employees with high boosts efficiency of internet.

And after being on top Riyadh, and Dubai, the third city ruling the internet speed surprisingly is Kuwait among other cities in the Middle East region. Kuwait has an exceptional literacy rate of 96 in percentage with very low electricity cost of just 2.5 p/kWh along with a broadband speed of 149.37 Mbps that’s make it a perfect place to startup any kind of business. The only issue is with office premises there as rent is a bit higher than the other cities and worth at £333.66 per month. For that reasons, Emirates Business Setup is here to help as we also provide office premises in Dubai or across the UAE.

Top 10 cities for startups in MENA region

The top 10 cities in the MENA that found to be best for start-ups are listed below:

• Amman city of Jordan 
• Istanbul city of Turkey 
• Manama city of Bahrain  
• Casablanca city of Morocco 
• Cairo city of Egypt 
• Baghdad city of Iraq 
• Beirut city of Lebanon 
• Dubai, an Emirate of UAE  
• Riyadh, city of KSA 
• Kuwait