Chinese multinational provider of comms technology Huawei has launched its Non Stop Banking initiative to enable banks to increase revenue and customer base, save operational costs and enhance financial inclusion. 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 and ‘non-stop’ development.

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. Moreover, Jason Cao, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Global Digital Finance, pointed out that financial services were becoming mobile and intelligent at a rapid pace. 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 democratisation, secure and reliable infrastructure, hybrid multi-cloud and Lego-style modular services, and automated and predictable operation.

Huawei’s previous banking initiatives 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. Huawei previously provided the foundation 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. Huawei Cloud 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 partnerships and Spark programme 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.

In March 2023, Ooredoo has signed a partnership agreement with Huawei to leverage its mobile fintech platform to provide fintech services in markets across the company’s footprint. Ooredoo had already a strong position in fintech in Qatar that represents a 35% market share of the overall mobile money transaction value in the MENA region, based on a 2022 GSMA study for the MENA market. .