Huawei To Help in National Digital Transformation after President Kenyatta’s Agreement

President Uhuru Kenyatta, accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Minister of Transport and Basic Infrastructure, Minister of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives and other government officials visited Huawei’s Beijing Executive Briefing Center and met with Huawei’s Rotating CEO, Guo Ping.

President Kenyatta and Guo Ping discussed how to work together to improve Kenya’s ICT infrastructure, Government cloud platform, public safety, and smart cities. Following the discussions, the Republic of Kenya and Huawei signed an agreement for collaboration on building a Government cloud infrastructure.

The collaboration agreement covers how Huawei will help Kenya build the infrastructure necessary for government cloud services, migrate government data and applications to the government cloud, and create a platform for government departments to share data and better communicate. This will help provide a “One-window style solution” for government services improving government efficiency.

Huawei donated a set of safe city equipment to three major towns in Kenya to help strengthen policing capabilities and protection of people’s lives and property, which the President commented as very useful and important for the country.  The equipment includes 6eNodeB Stations, 150 Radio Trunking Terminals, and a Radio Trunking System Core Network and Dispatch System.In addition, Huawei committed to extending its flagship ICT talent program, “Seeds for the Future” for a further three years from 2018-2020. Seeds for the Future will provide training for 30 outstanding University students in the ICT field giving them advanced training in China. This equips local students with important skills for them to drive forward Kenya’s ICT industry and the ICT ecosystem. During the ceremony announcing the agreement and Seeds for the Future donation, President Kenyatta expressed his sincere appreciation to Huawei for providing ICT technologies to connect Kenya and help establish Kenya as East Africa’s leading ICT hub. In

In addition, Huawei committed to extending its flagship ICT talent program, “Seeds for the Future” for a further three years from 2018-2020. Seeds for the Future will provide training for 30 outstanding University students in the ICT field giving them advanced training in China. This equips local students with important skills for them to drive forward Kenya’s ICT industry and the ICT ecosystem. During the ceremony announcing the agreement and Seeds for the Future donation, President Kenyatta expressed his sincere appreciation to Huawei for providing ICT technologies to connect Kenya and help establish Kenya as East Africa’s leading ICT hub.In

In addition, he thanked Huawei for contributing to building the country’s ICT talent enabling the country’s digital transformation and speeding up the country’s modernization and development together with the government.

President Kenyatta stated: “I am extremely grateful to Huawei for the warm welcome today. The development of ICT and a country’s future are closely intertwined Kenya welcomes Huawei’s development in Kenya, I appreciate the role played by Huawei in Kenya’s development and progress and hope that Huawei can utilize Kenya’s resources to expand regional and international markets. Kenya looks forward to continuing our partnership with Huawei and that this partnership can accelerate the science and technology industry in Kenya providing more job opportunities for Kenyan youth. I believe that Huawei and Kenya can further deepen our cooperation on ICT, continue to drive forward Kenya’s ICT industry, and cement Kenya’s role as an ICT leader in this region.” “Let us work together and we count on your support as we work on developing our technologies,” said the President when he met the CEO of Huawei Technologies.

Huawei Rotating CEO Guo Ping commented: “ICT is the enabler of the development of a digital society. Across the world, governments are making it one of their top priorities to utilize ICT to drive their digital transformation. Huawei recognizes that Kenya has made the development of its ICT industry one of its major priorities and invested accordingly. Its national Vision 2030 is highly strategic and forward-looking and will help guide the ICT industry forward and accelerate socio-economic growth. With a clear focus on building Kenya’s ICT infrastructure, Huawei will continue working closely with Kenya to share our leading technologies and solutions along with our global experiences to push forward Kenya’s digital economic development.”

In his speech, the Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, Liu Xianfa, stated that by investing in ICT emerging markets can leapfrog the investments made by mature markets. He invited the delegation from Kenya to study the experiences of industrial development in China’s Central and Western regions. In the meeting, Huawei Kenya’s CEO Dean Yu shared updates on Huawei’s local activities and partnerships in Kenya. This included important ICT projects such as M-PESA and  NOFBI, as well as Huawei’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives including significant contributions to community development, wildlife protection, women’s and children’s welfare and supporting those affected by natural disasters.

Huawei has operated in Kenya for more than 19 years. Currently, Huawei’s ICT products and solutions cover services for Kenya’s citizens and government.