Huawei, MTN Partner for Sustainability in Africa

MTN Group and Huawei entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their strategic cooperation in the area of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG).

The MoU was announced during a summit at MWC Barcelona. It is in line with MTN's Ambition 2025 business strategy and Huawei's Corporate Sustainability Development (CSD) strategy, which includes the TECH4ALL initiative.

“Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress can only be achieved through the power of partnerships,” said MTN Group Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer Nompilo Morafo. “Working with companies like Huawei, we can pool our technologies and expertise to drive greater access to connectivity, digital skills, and greener and more sustainable solutions to the benefit of all.”

"We believe that digital technology will become an important force driving social development and making the world more inclusive and sustainable," said Guo Ping, Chairman of the Huawei Supervisory Board.

Huawei's DigiTruck project is focused on digital skills training, providing free training to underserved populations, including those in rural communities, the elderly, the unemployed, girls, and women. The mobile classroom, made from a repurposed shipping container mounted on a truck, is solar-powered and equipped with laptops, smartphones, and 4G connectivity.

The Huawei ICT Academy is another digital skills training initiative, providing university students with training in ICT skills such as 5G, cloud computing, and AI. The academy has a global presence, with 1,900 locations in 110 countries, and serves around 150,000 students annually.

MTN's Skills Academy aims to bridge the gap between digital skills training and the job market, benefiting digital technology producers, consumers, and innovators. Through this partnership with Huawei, the organisations seek to increase their efforts to bring digital skills training to even more rural and remote communities and expand the range of available training options.

Given that a significant portion of Africa's population resides in rural areas, MTN is committed to extending its network to underserved communities, to achieve 95% rural broadband coverage by 2025. The partnership with Huawei brings MTN closer to achieving its target, and the company plans to broaden its portfolio of collaborations and partnership models.

MTN and Huawei have joined forces to implement RuralStar, an affordable connectivity solution designed to provide online access to remote and rural communities. This initiative addresses the traditional barriers that make network connectivity in such scenarios unviable for carriers, and the partnership builds on the success of the world's first RuralStar proof-of-concept, which was completed in Ghana in 2017.

In reducing carbon emissions, Huawei is supporting MTN's pledge to minimise its impact on the environment and achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. The two companies will collaborate to decarbonise MTN's telecommunications infrastructure, including Radio Access Network (RAN) sites, transport networks, storage, and data centres. This decarbonisation effort will be achieved through a combination of energy efficiency technologies and the application of innovative green solutions.

To learn more, please visit https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2023.

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Source: Huawei