Huawei Director pushes for digital investment in Africa

Dar es Salaam. Policy makers and business leaders in Sub Saharan Africa must take advantage of the growing digital space to promote socio-economic well-being by investing in fourth generation of mobile network (4G) and Long Term Evolution (LTE).

The Huawei Southern Africa Region Director for Strategic Partnership and New Technology Dr Mouhamadou Moussa, said that the urgency comes from the soaring smartphone penetration and booming social media, which gives people enough incentive to go online.

He was speaking on Thursday, September 19 at the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) ministerial ICT forum held in Dar es Salaam.

“Business decisions must always be made at least one step ahead of the market maturity stage, “he said, adding that the huge potential of 4G LTE in democratizing connectivity to empower people and businesses can be released only when it is affordable to the common people.

He said by 2025, only 15 per cent of mobile connections in the world will be on 5G.

But according to the 2019 report by GSMA Intelligence, LTE usage will be about 59 per cent by the same year, up from 43 per cent in 2018.

The report concludes that for operators in many parts of the world, LTE is and will be the foundation for the next 10 years at least with speeds improving, LTE makes 5G less compelling.

Therefore the ICT experts called for service innovation key to reap approaching the 5G dividend with a strong focus on accelerating the proliferation of 4G LTE network during the ministerial ICT forum. 

Currently, the 5G is a reality in Africa as South Africa's mobile data network operator rain and Huawei jointly announced the commissioning of Africa first commercial 5G network.

The 5G is a key enabler of the digitization of economies and societies, which is at the heart of African nations’ ambitions to accelerate sustainable economic growth and to embrace the 4th industrial revolution.

“Service innovation are the right way to unleash 5G capabilities. In Africa the service innovation must be solution focused, so that digital inclusivity could be turned into social-economic exclusivity to realize tech for all,” said Dr Moussa.

Furthermore, “Right policies, necessary legal framework, coordination between stakeholders, alignment of decision making levels and streamlined approval process need to be put in place to ensure future-oriented spectrum planning and rapid deployment of ICT infrastructure. All of these will ultimately lower the cost of deployment and increase affordability of digital services,”