Huawei has unveiled its ‘Non-Stop Banking’ initiative at the Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit for Africa 2023.
The initiative called for hand-in-hand collaboration between the Information Communications Technology and banking industries and facilitate a digital future of ‘non-stop’ services, ‘non-stop’ development, and ‘non-stop’ innovation.
Mr Leo Chen, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region, in a statement issued in Accra, spoke about why going digital had become such a major imperative for the banking industry.
He said not only did it make it easier for banks to broaden their customer base, but it also enabled them to save operational costs, allow them to develop new products, and deepen the customer relationship, thus generating revenues for banks.
In Africa, he said there was an even greater imperative for banks to embrace digitization, as it allowed for greater financial inclusion.
Mr Chen lauded the innovative work done by many African banks and 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.
“Huawei has already served more than 2500 financial customers in over 60 countries and regions, including 50 of the world’s top 100 banks,” he added.
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He said many Huawei technologies were helpful on this front and over the years, it had provided the foundation and backbone for the digitalization 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, meanwhile, means that it’s well-poised to help the industry shape its future too,” he said.
From a technical perspective, he pointed to Huawei’s strength in storage, fibre optic networks, IP networks and data communication, which enable ‘multi-domain collaboration’ solutions for banks.
The President said its ‘storage and optical connection coordination (SOCC)’ solutions could reduce system switchover time from two minutes to two seconds after a network breakdown, ensuring zero transaction interruptions.
He said the multilayer ransomware protection (MRP) technology, meanwhile, could provide 6-layer protections, from storage, to network, to applications and other layers. It enables a reliable and secure ‘end-to-end’ protection to the whole system.
He said Huawei’s intelligent network O&M solutions enable faults to be detected in one minute, diagnosed in three minutes, and rectified in five minutes.
Huawei Cloud, the world’s fastest-growing major cloud service provider, could additionally support the hybrid multi-cloud service required by banks.
“Huawei’s digital energy solutions, meanwhile, can help to provide an uninterrupted and green power supply for the banking sector. This effectively addresses power deficit issues and supports ‘non-stop’ banking,” he said.
Mr 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.
“Huawei is dedicated to helping its African financial customers address challenges and accelerate changes across 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,” he added.
He said ìn this way, Huawei would facilitate financial digitalization and innovatively improve productivity in Africa, while revolving around stability, agility, and intelligence.
Mr Cao said Huawei aimed to build ‘non-stop’ financial services and achieve ‘non-stop’ development alongside ’non-stop’ innovation.
He said beyond technology, Huawei 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.
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.
