Why Huawei is supporting Nigeria’s Smart Cities Initiative – MD

The Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Nigeria, Mr Tank Li, has said the company is supporting Nigeria’s Smart Cities Initiative to help the country grow its digital economy. Speaking in Abuja at the just concluded Smart City Summit, Mr Li said data flow and economic development had become the big trends of our time “and […]

The Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Nigeria, Mr Tank Li, has said the company is supporting Nigeria’s Smart Cities Initiative to help the country grow its digital economy.

Speaking in Abuja at the just concluded Smart City Summit, Mr Li said data flow and economic development had become the big trends of our time “and the digital economy is a new form of economy in which everyone can share.”

“We project that in the near future a digital economy that will bring about enormous changes in the society. We simply have no way of knowing how deep and far-reaching these changes will be. However, we can be sure of one thing, that ICT will be the cornerstone of this digital economy”, he said.

According to him, the fourth industrial revolution is going to impact people’s lives in unimaginable ways and this will happen through the convergence of the cyber and physical worlds. 

“The Internet of things is an automatic ‘smart’ communication between objects, through the internet. McKinsey Global Institute says in a report last year that IoT could have a total economic impact of US$4 trillion to US$11 trillion a year by 2025. IoT pervades many areas of life”, he added. In the future he said, the arrival of multiple smartphones and wearable devices, in connection with the computing power will mark the beginning of human-machine integration.  

He said: “Based on the above insight and assumptions, Huawei is committed to building the technological infrastructure that will harmonize devices, pipe, and the cloud. 

These will serve as the backbone of a digital economy. As such, devices, pipe, and cloud technology are the strategic focus of Huawei’s investment in the future.

“Nigerian government has realized the potential of its digital economy. Unlocking the dividends of digital economy becomes imperative in the face of dwindling oil revenue with increasingly pressure on the economy evident in budgets deficit, infrastructural deficit, high unemployment rate, harsh business environment and corruption amongst others.”

In order to better present the results of our R&D investment in Nigeria, he said Huawei had spent over $6million and established the Innovation and Experience Centre.