President William Ruto Monday witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Kenya and Huawei in Beijing China when he visited Huawei’s Beijing Executive Briefing Center (EBC).
The MoU states that the two parties will collaborate to further develop the ICT infrastructure of Kenya and promote the digitization of various sectors of the country, such as transportation, e-government, education, digital energy among others.
Additionally, the two parties agreed to continue to cultivate digital skills and knowledge sharing to enable Kenya youth to be job ready.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, President Ruto stated that, “We recognise the urgent need to develop green, digital and creative economy in Kenya. In this regard, we therefor regard Huawei as a reliable partner of Kenya in terms of improving digital infrastructure, with its pioneering strength in ICT technologies driven by its heavy R&D investment. We look forward to strengthening the partnership for more positive outcomes of the ICT infrastructure construction and industrial digitalization.”
Chairman of Huawei’s Board of Directors, Liang Hua said Huawei is ready to work more closely with Kenyan government to grow the digital and creative economy in the country.
“Huawei hopes to facilitate Kenya’s development in fields like the ICT connectivity infrastructure, national data center and solar power generation. We will continue to dedicate ourselves to improving young Kenyans’ digital skills and literacy. Huawei values in on openness, collaboration and win-win results. We will enhance investment in the R&D of cutting-edge technologies across connectivity, computing and digital power. Our team will work with local customers and partners to make greater contributions to the digital economy in Kenya.”
Since starting operations in Kenya in 2003, Huawei has been dedicated to boosting ICT infrastructure, providing digital services, and promoting digital skills in the country.
The global ICT leader supported the construction of computing power infrastructure including National Optical Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) and the KONZA National Data Center.
Huawei also supported Safaricom in launching the first 5G network in East Africa in 2021.
Besides, Huawei has long been a firm supporter of Kenya’s inclusive development and digital skills agenda, contributing to Kenya’s inclusive finance innovations such as the M-PESA and the Hustler-fund, and has provided digital skills training to about 10,000 Kenyan people in the past year.
