At last week’s Africa Tech Festival, Huawei had a significant presence at the annual event showcasing its involvement in all aspects of the continent’s telecommunications industry.
The company even had a billing during the opening keynote, with Mohamed Madkour, VP of ICT Strategy and Marketing at Huawei, appearing on stage to deliver his presentation on “Talent is the foundation for prosperity.”
In recent years, Huawei has launched several initiatives aimed at fostering more talent on the continent, as well as upskilling the digital sector.
“Africa has achieved a lot over the last decade, but we still need to work harder for Africa to leap in the Era of 5G and intelligence,” To help transition Africa, Madkour said there must focus on its services, infrastructure, talent, and environment.
“At Huawei, besides diversified intelligent ICT infrastructure solutions offering, we pay a lot of attention to talent, ecosystem, environment, as well as open partnerships and collaboration with all stake holders,” he said.
To that end, Madkour also pointed to the value of collaboration in terms of reaching targets around talent development.
Here he said that no single organisation, government, or operator can address these challenges on its own, and that, “it all requires real proactive collaboration for us to make a real difference.”
“Huawei is laser-focused on developing talent through academic collaboration and certifications. The people trained today will do the crucial work of transforming how our society works and its ability to develop sustainably,” the company shared in a release with Hypertext.
The VP was also cognisant of the role that physical devices will play in all this too, echoing the sentiment of Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Solly Malasti in stating, “We need to get that remarkable device, the smartphone, into the hands of every African person.”
Added to personal devices, he highlighted the growing issue of reliable power on the continent, which South Africans are all too aware of.
“When we talk about technology performance in Africa, we should couple that with power consumption efficiency. We should not only talk about sustainability for commercial purposes, but we also need to talk about sustainability for social purposes and prioritise the beauty of the environment in Africa,” he stressed.
For its part, Huawei’s strategy for sustainable digital development is to focus on the gains that can be made from these enhanced technologies to unlock greener solutions development.
“Huawei is supporting low-carbon transition initiatives on the continent as its leaders expand the power supply in their countries. Through its solar microgrids, Huawei aims to deliver power to rural and remote areas without needing large-scale investments in power distribution and transmission networks,” he noted.
“Imagine a village of 150 households going from no power to receiving between 30 kW power and 60 kWh of energy storage system in three to six months – that’s crucial for closing the digital divide gap, that’s what Huawei is aiming to deliver,” posited Madkour.
While the continent no doubt has its challenges, the VP is still optimistic, and people appear to be the reason behind this, which is why he is emphasising the need to prioritise talent and upskilling as a way to bridge any gaps in our industry.
