Huawei unveils non-stop initiative for banking sector
from DION HENRICK in Cape Town CAPE TOWN, (CAJ News) HUAWEI has called for a non-stop digital future for Africa’s banking industry, a move it believes would enable banks increase revenue and customer base, save operational costs and enhance financial inclusion.The technology company has launched its “Non Stop Banking” initiative, unveiled at the Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit for Africa 2023.The initiative calls for hand-in-hand collaboration between the information and communications technology (ICT) and banking industries and facilitate a digital future of ‘non-stop’ services, ‘non-stop’ development, and ‘non-stop’ innovation.
In a keynote speech announcing the initiative, Leo Chen, president of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region, said there’s an even greater imperative for banks to embrace digitisation, as it allows for greater financial inclusion.While Chen lauded the innovative work done by many African banks in embracing digitisation, he pointed out that all players in the industry needed to go further if they were to embrace the “non-stop” approach that would characterise the future of banking.
Jason Cao, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Global Digital Finance, pointed out that financial services were becoming mobile and intelligent at a blistering pace.”The financial industry should pay acute attention to users and their demands, embracing changes,” he said.
Cao assured that Huawei was dedicated to helping its African financial customers address challenges and accelerate changes across six fields, namely shifting from transaction to digital engagement, cloud-native and agile businesses, data democratization, secure and reliable infrastructure, hybrid multi-cloud and Lego-style modular services, and automated and predictable operation.”In this way, Huawei will facilitate financial digitalisation and innovatively improve productivity in Africa,” he said.
“Revolving around stability, agility, and intelligence, Huawei aims to build ‘non-stop’ financial services, and achieve ‘non-stop’ development alongside ‘non-stop’ innovation,” he added.Huawei has already served more than 2 500 financial customers in over 60 countries and regions, including 50 of the world’s top 100 banks.
Numerous Huawei technologies, Chen said, were helpful on this front.Over the years, it has provided the foundation and backbone for the digitalisation of the banking industry in Africa by supporting the construction of the continent’s ICT infrastructure and digital connectivity in rural areas.
Its extensive focus on research and development (RandD), meanwhile, means that it’s well-poised to help the industry shape its future too.Chen said from a technical perspective, Huawei’s strength in storage, fibre optic networks, IP networks and data communication, enabled ‘multi-domain collaboration’ solutions for banks.
Huawei Cloud, rated the world’s fastest-growing major cloud service provider that can additionally support the hybrid multi-cloud service required by banks.Beyond technology, Huawei has issued a call for all parties in the industry to come together and build more robust ICT infrastructure, facilitate more measures and policies to encourage digital finance innovation, cultivate a sound innovative ecosystem, and train more digital talent for the industry.
Huawei Cloud’s Spark programme has pledged to assist 1 000 small and medium enterprises over the next three years.Having already trained more than 80 000 digital talents in Africa, it has launched the ‘LEAP’ digital talent training programme in Sub-Saharan Africa region, aiming to train another 100 000 people in the next three years.
The Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit for Africa 2023 brought together more than 200 attendees, including key industry opinion leaders, as well as executives from major banks across Africa. CAJ News
Source: CAJ News Agency