by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – HUAWEI Cloud will invest R100 million (US$5,94 million) in 1 000 startups in South Africa over the next three years.
This investment comes as the relationship between Huawei and its customers in the public and private sectors pay off.
Spawn Fan, Huawei South Africa Chief Executive Officer, underlined the importance of partnerships to what Huawei has been able to achieve through its 24 years of operation in the country.
He noted the technology company supported South African operators to build more than 2 800 5G base stations and Huawei has more than 1 000 registered small, micro and medium enterprise (SMME) partners.
“We need to enable local partners and people to get the most advanced technology,” Fan said.
Some 96 percent of Huawei South Africa’s sales are also done through partners, a number it wants to increase to 100 percent in the near future.
As it looks to further cement and grow its partnerships, Huawei is increasing the incentives it offers partners and will increase by 35 percent its funded hand (FH) in partners.
Chen also announced that Huawei Cloud’s third availability zone (AZ) is set to go live later this year, three years ahead of schedule.
Huawei President for Southern Africa Eco Connect, Leo Chen
Once live, the AZ will halve cloud latency.
“South Africa is an important strategic market for Huawei Cloud,” Fan said.
He also outlined Huawei’s commitment to helping drive South African innovation through initiatives such as its Open Lab, Joint Innovation Centre and POC Lab.
“We want our partnerships to help South African companies build South African solutions,” Fan said.
Ntutule Tshenye, Executive: State Information Technology Agency (SITA), disclosed on June 22, they launched the first phase of the SITA Innovation Centre in partnership with Huawei.
Dietlof Mare, Vumatel CEO, meanwhile pointed out that Huawei technologies and solutions had been crucial to the former’s ability to connect 1,5 million South African homes with fibre.
This includes the launch of Vumatel’s pre-paid fibre offerings, hailed as crucial to closing the country’s digital divide.
“Huawei was with us from the beginning,” Mare said.
Robert Gumede, founder of IT technology firm, Gijima, welcomed partnerships with Huawei.
“It is good for business to have a partner like Huawei. They are there to walk with you to the clients and put together a superior proposition,” Gumede said.
The officials were speaking at Huawei’s Eco Connect 2022 in Sandton this past weekend.
– CAJ News