by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – HUAWEI plans to allocate US$30 million / ¥216,6 million (R573.6 million) for partner capability enhancement, joint branding activities, joint solution innovation and local talent development in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The announcement has been made at the just-concluded Eco-Connect Sub-Saharan Africa 2023, the flagship event run under the theme, “Leading Digital for New Value Together”, attended in Johannesburg by nearly 3 000 delegates from more than ten countries.
Huawei has nearly 3 000 partners in sub-Saharan Africa, and 90 percent of its sales are made through partners in the region.
In his opening address, David Wang, Executive Director of the Board, Chairman of ICT Infrastructure Managing Board, President of Enterprise BG, Huawei, explained how the company is helping its customers ride an unstoppable digital wave.
Wang emphasised that successful digital transformation requires businesses to find the right blend of strategy and investment in technology.
“Through strong, ongoing investment, Huawei has built up end-to-end digital technological capabilities,” he said.
“But the prosperous and sustainable ecosystem we’ve built with our partners has been equally critical to ensuring that we enable successful digital transformation initiatives among our customers,” Wang said.
Huawei has more than 35 000 partners across eight categories.
To date, Huawei’s partner ecosystem has allowed it to help build more than 700 smart cities. It also serves 50 of the world’s top 100 banks and 20 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies.
“We are entering into an era of great challenges and even greater opportunities,” Wang said.
“To overcome those challenges and to embrace the available opportunities, we should join hands to embrace the intelligent world and grow and succeed together,” he said.
Huawei President for Sub-Saharan Africa Region, Leo Chen
In his keynote, Leo Chen, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region, spoke about how the wave of digitalisation offers the continent the opportunity to potentially leapfrog its development.
However, he said, challenges cannot be ignored.
These include insufficient computing infrastructure and a lack of an easy way to obtain new technologies such as cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), gaps in network connectivity; power shortages, the need to rapidly decarbonise requirements and a shortage of digital talent.
Addressing these challenges, Chen said, requires the kind of highly customisable solutions Huawei has brought to market and implemented with its partners.
Chen said Huawei’s industry-leading technologies, products and solutions, such as 5G, all-flash data centre, Cloud Stack and Huawei smart string energy storage solution have been successfully applied in industries such as finance, transportation, mining and renewable energy.
“This has helped customers reduce costs and improve efficiency while enjoying enhanced security and reliability,” he said.
The Eco-Connect Sub-Saharan Africa 2023 included eight sub-forums in the fields of digital government, IP networks, data storage, transportation, cloud, and digital energy.
Huawei’s range of products, solutions and best practices for industry digital transformation were on display in the 25 00 square meters exhibition hall.
– CAJ News