African Union Forges New Partnership with Huawei on ICT Technologies

0

huawei android replacement

Huawei had a tough May thanks to the US-China trade crisis but that does not mean that they are not forging new relationships elsewhere in the world.

The Chinese networking giant announced a three year memorandum of understanding that seeks to improve the African Union’s technical expertise on key ICT areas.

Huawei will partner with the African Union to strengthen various ICT areas like rolling out of 5G networks, cloud computing, Internet of Things, broadband and artificial intelligence. The agreement also includes an initiative to  train young people in tech skills an also support African Union departments in dealing with cyber security as well as digital health and education.

This new MoU builds on a MoU signed in February 2015. “This collaboration demonstrates the African Union’s continued confidence in Huawei,” Philippe Wang, Vice President of the Chinese Group for North Africa.

“Through this approach, we also want to put an end to rumours of leaks from Huawei equipment, as the AU has carried out a full audit of IT system throughout the organisation, an the findings contradict the statements made in the media last year,” Wang added.

The timing of this announcement comes at a time when Huawei is in the middle of a trade war where the Shenzhen headquartered company has faced a massive blow in trust. Thanks to the executive order by Trump, it desisted American companies from trading with the company which led to top tech companies suspending relations with Huawei. However, some of these restrictions have been removed somehow and the situation is still far from over.