Marrakech – As part of the recently concluded GITEX Africa activities, Chinese tech giant Huawei has shown off several new solutions that can help Africa’s digital transition be quicker and more efficient.

The company, which is a prominent sponsor for the event, took center stage with solutions that aim to tackle several fields and bring digital and IT technologies to African citizens’ everyday lives.

To that end, Huawei leveraged several solutions from cloud infrastructures to a new “Everything as a Service” approach, and big data technologies to help African nations achieve a more sustainable transition.

Huawei Cloud

Speaking at the “Unleash Digital for New Africa” event, held by Huawei on the sidelines of GITEX, Huawei’s President Enterprise & Cloud of Huawei Northern Africa Colin Hu also highlighted the importance of Huawei’s cloud service and why the company decided to enter the sector.

Despite the presence of several large companies in the sector –including Google, Apple, and Amazon– Huawei felt that it was important to have a “sovereign” cloud service.

Perhaps no incident drove this point home more than the 2018 sanctions imposed on the Chinese company by former US President Donald Trump, which prevented Huawei from using services like the ones from Google, which were vital to the company’s operations.

It is from that incident that, according to Hu, the need arose for a more independent cloud service that can withstand external, geopolitical pressures.

“During the most unexpected times, like the Russia-Ukraine war, even McDonald’s left Russia, right?” Hu explained. “So, as a big country like China, we need to have an alternative solution.”

The service also leverages Huawei’s new “Everything as a Service” approach, which uses infrastructure, technology, and expertise to improve the company’s tech offerings across the globe.

Huawei cloud boasts the company’s new “Everything as a Service” approach.

By expanding its data center network throughout the world to reach more than 170 countries, Huawei is aiming to use its infrastructure to improve global accessibility to data and collaboration tools.

In parallel, the company also aims to improve and facilitate innovation by funding more research and development and improving Africa’s human resources in the sector. Throughout the world, Huawei’s cloud services have allowed more than 40,000 partners and 4 million developers to build more sustainable digital solutions.

Finally, the company is also hoping to translate its long experience in the field, boasting over 30 years of digitization, into a service as well.

In addition to private businesses, Huawei also secured partnerships with governments in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Brazil, and South Africa, Ziki Wisal, Huawei Northern Africa Cloud’s Senior Solution Architect, detailed at the press conference.

Ziki Wisal, Huawei Northern Africa Cloud’s Senior Solution Architect.

Helping Africa digitize

In its efforts to help Africa reach a complete digital transition, Huawei outlined three main pillars for its program for the continent: digital infrastructure, a new model to support startups, and new values around digital governance and better quality of life.

Huawei Chief Strategy Official Chakib Achour explained to Morocco World News (MWN) that the company is helping Africa digitize on the infrastructure front and build new ones to suit that purpose.

“For the digital economy, we are developing [it] vertically, and we can see here some use cases in logistics, transport, mine… and industry,” he said, stressing that the company has been involved in several new cybersecurity centers, data centers, and establishing better connectivity.

One of the main issues that will face African countries as they try to digitize their systems is also the accessibility and spread of electricity and connectivity services, another area where Huawei is hoping to be of help.

The company showcased several solutions for connectivity, aiming to provide reliable coverage for several areas that can range from big cities and villages, to smaller towns that are not as dense, and also cover the highways and remote roads connecting all these areas.

“In Senegal, in Cameroon, in Gambia, in all these countries, we provide digital services for the people,” Hu told MWN. “We believe that everyone deserves to have the latest technologies.”

Speaking at the GITEX event, Hu also stressed the importance of using this digital infrastructure and technology to establish a greener transition in Africa.

Adnane Benhalima, Huawei North Africa’s Vice President in Charge of Public Relations, said the company aims to provide digital technologies to “every person, to every home, anytime and everywhere.”

Benhalima stressed the importance of infrastructure in the endeavor, stressing that Huawei builds more of it everyday.

“Technology should be useful for the economy, generally speaking,” he stressed. “So far, the main use of technology is mainly for public use, for entertainment, for videos, and that’s why we think developing technology for the economy is very important.”

He also detailed some of Huawei’s projects to facilitate digitization on the continent through building more human resources and startups.

Fintech is another sector that is booming, according to the Huawei official, who pointed to areas like North and West Africa as examples of regions where digital technologies have shifted the paradigm when it comes to payments and other financial services.

The technology boasts new storage and connectivity capabilities.

All-encompassing solutions

Huawei’s solutions, which were presented at the GITEX event, encompassed several fields and customer needs. The company showcased smart solutions for governmental services like tax collection and national security, leveraging its infrastructure and data science expertise.

The services also reached into the industrial sector, where the tech giant showcased its solutions for vital industries such as mining and transport, with new technologies that can facilitate safer and more efficient extraction of materials.

In finance, some of the company’s connectivity and communication solutions promise to make operations such as data transfer between banks or video meetings more efficient, promising exponential improvements over existing solutions.

Meanwhile, the company also showcased solutions in the education and healthcare sector, with their concepts for smart hospitals and smart classrooms leveraging big data technologies and AI to improve on the effectiveness and comfort in both fields.

This year’s GITEX conference is the first to be held internationally and the first with an African focus, promising possibly brighter opportunities for pan-African collaboration in the digital field going forward.

With a very young and rapidly growing population, as well as an equally blooming digital economy, Huawei will no doubt want to capitalize on the African market and plant a foothold there while the market is still growing.