Telecom
How 5G Technology Will Drive Future Business – Huawei, Partners
Huawei Technologies, leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, recently held its 5G+, Better World Summit, where various operators and industry partners shared their experiences of how 5G applications can drive significant business and industry efficiency.
Several Huawei partners during the summit highlighted the different industries that are getting great benefits out of 5G. Even as they say 5G’s Impact on Global GDP is over $7.5 trillion.
Bob Cai, Huawei Carrier CMO in his address said; “5G development has entered a new phase.”
“With over 80 5G networks commercially available worldwide, determining how to leverage 5G to create more value is currently a topic of great interest within the industry.”
“Currently, 5G for business is still more of a branding concept, and more solid work needs to be done. To build a positive business cycle, work should be done in four aspects: technology, ecosystem, standards, and business model.”
5G will drive future business
Dimitris Mavrakis, research director of ABI research, highlighted that new ‘G’ technologies have historically offered major benefits to consumers.
5G, however, is likely to be most beneficial to the commercial sector.
By 2030, Mavrakis predicted that 5G’s impact on the global GDP will be over $7.5 trillion – compared to the $5.1 trillion 4G contributed in 2019.
“We expect that 5G will transform businesses in the same way 4G transformed consumers,” said Mavrakis.
However, he cautioned that it could take several years for the manufacturing world to adopt the technology.
Mavrakis also implored governments to provide opportunities for 5G to flourish within their countries, and highlighted ways that this is already being done, such as in the provisioning of free 5G spectrum and the reduction in taxation of carriers.
Several Huawei partners also highlighted the different industries that are already getting great benefits out of 5G.
Ports of trade
Xu Mengqiang, General Manager of China Mobile Ningbo, highlighted that several 5G implementations have resulted in substantial benefits to a Ningbo port.
These include 5G-powered self-driving container trucks, remote controlled cranes, and backhaul HD video streaming – which shows key cranes in real time.
The Ningbo port envisions that efficiency will be increased by over 260% while labour costs will be cut by over 70% as a result of new 5G-powered technologies.
Agriculture
Dr Thomas Anken is the head of the Digital Production Federal Department of Economic Affairs Education and Research in Switzerland.
Anken highlighted that 5G is enabling a variety of smart farming methods that have a significant impact on the yields of farms in the country.
Examples include:
Multispectral imaging of wheat fields by drones resulting in a 10% decrease in fertiliser usage.
Tractors with an automated hoe that recognises plants and eliminates the weeds around them.
The swift delivery of important intelligence to the cloud which ensures that automated robots receive data to update their machine learning capabilities, while farmers also receive insights into how they can optimise their processes.
Smart factories
Guo Lihong, Deputy Director of the Engineering Equipment Department of Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel, explained that 5G is expected to increase the factory’s efficiency by 30% while reducing costs by the same margin.
5G is used with remote-controlled cranes and slag-adding arms to streamline the factory’s processes, and these cranes have improved production efficiency by 33%.
The ability for production line surveyors to watch real-time production through HD video has also optimised these workers’ jobs.
In total, the factory plans to build 100 5G macro sites as well as three management centres to continue to reap the benefits of 5G.
Hospitals
Hospitals in the Henan province have implemented a variety of impressive 5G-powered functionalities to improve their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These systems were installed within 82 hours and involved the building of remote systems for 147 hospitals in 18 cities within the province.
Features that were available to these hospitals included:
Remote surgery guidance.
Robots through which doctors can talk to patients.
Systems in ambulances which support first response teams – in an ambulance moving at 80km/h, backhaul speed is 50MB/s.
Lynda Saint-Nwafor, chief Enterprise business officer, MTN Nigeria, has assured the network subscribers that the new end-user billing system for the use of USSD services will jot affect them.
USSD, otherwise Unstructured Supplementary Service Data codes are commonly used for banking transactions, airtime recharges, and other mobile services.
The telco said that there is no significant impact or change other than the fact that they will now pay the same N6.98 per session (120 seconds) with their airtime instead of direct bank debit.
Saint-Nwafor, said this during a chat with MTN MIP fellows, explaining that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have ordered telecom operators to ensure that the new billing model resolves trust issues and ensures transparency in the billing process.
“Our regulator insisted that at the end of every month, we are going to be providing history and statistics on the performance of the service across the board”, she explained.
Saint-Nwafor added that the new billing model has standardized messaging across all operators and ensures consistent communication with customers.
“We will take all the error codes and map them into messages that are standardised across the board. So, if you initiate a transaction, you will know if it is failing. And, when the transaction fails, you will know if it is from your bank or the telco,” she explained.
The U.S. government has recovered $225 million in what is now the largest seizure of funds linked to a cryptocurrency investment scam.
In a statement released Wednesday, June 18, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the recovery followed an extensive investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, using blockchain analysis and other forensic tools. The statement did not confirm whether any arrests had been made.
According to the authorities, the stolen funds originated from fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes that tricked victims into believing they were making legitimate investments. More than 400 individuals around the world, including dozens in the United States, were reportedly affected.
The operation involved a sophisticated money laundering network that carried out hundreds of thousands of blockchain transactions to obscure the source and ownership of the stolen assets.
“These scams prey on trust, often resulting in extreme financial hardship for the victims,” said Shawn Bradstreet, Special Agent in Charge at the U.S. Secret Service office in San Francisco.
Bradstreet added that U.S. officials hope the recovered funds can eventually be returned to the rightful victims.
Cryptocurrency investment fraud accounted for over $5.8 billion in reported losses in 2024 alone, according to the statement.
In a rousing declaration that is electrifying minds across the continent, Hon. Nnaemeka Ani, Special Adviser on ICT to Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, has called for a homegrown digital revolution under the banner “Africa Will Rise: By Code, By Courage, By Us.”
Hon. Nnaemeka Ani
The message, part challenge, part philosophical—seeks to galvanize African innovators to move beyond buzzwords and build technology with impact and legacy in mind.
“Let’s stop building for hype. Let’s start building for legacy,” Ani urged while speaking to ICT journalists over the weekend. “Let’s stop waiting for someone else. Let’s start creating the future—on our own terms.”
At the heart of Ani’s vision is a shift from tech consumerism to tech authorship. With innovation hubs sprouting across cities like Enugu, Lagos, Kigali, Jo’Burg, and Nairobi, and a growing community of developers, engineers, and entrepreneurs determined to solve Africa’s unique challenges, the movement is already taking shape.
Ani emphasized that Africa’s future lies not in flashy apps or international admiration but in persistent, intentional solutions that uplift communities—solutions that digitize public services, bridge rural-urban divides, empower women and youth, and build resilience in food and climate systems.
“We have the talent,” he said. “Now it’s time to harness it—to stop building for likes and start building for lasting impact.”
With support from leaders like Ani and rising momentum in Africa’s tech corridors, it seems that a new chapter is being written—one line of code at a time.
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