Huawei to Establish OpenLabs in Nigeria, Kenya

Nigeria and Kenya will soon be home to Huawei’s OpenLab innovation facility, said Corrine Lin, president of the Global OpenLab Programme.

Lin was responding to a question during a media session at the 2019 Huawei Global Analyst Summit about plans to open more of these innovation-led labs in Africa.

Itweb reported that although she would not provide exact timelines, she confirmed the two countries as the next destinations on the continent that will house Huawei’s OpenLabs.

Huawei built its first OpenLab in 2012, and it is operated out of Suzhou, China. This was followed by Munich, Germany; Mexico City, Mexico; Singapore; and Dubai, UAE. In April 2017, the sixth global OpenLab was established in Johannesburg.

According to the Chinese company, the OpenLabs are a space to work with various industry partners across the world to create customer-centric and innovative solutions that enable digital transformation, while promoting industry ecosystem development.

Further, Huawei points out the OpenLabs facilitate joint innovation and solution launches with more than 400 partners across the smart city, finance, transportation, energy, manufacturing and media sectors.

Detailing the latest progress concerning OpenLabs, Lin said since 2017, her company has established 11 OpenLabs in overseas countries, bringing the total to 12 to date.

“After three years of construction, Huawei now has really strong capability to help its partners and customers to realise innovation in different vertical industries.

“Our OpenLabs have already engaged more than 300 solution partners and signed 116 MOU innovation solutions. In total, we’ve launched 137 joint solutions and generate revenue with our partners; it’s a win-win ecosystem.”

Lin pointed out some successful examples of OpenLab innovation, including Hexagon’s video alarm for the deaf with convergent command, and Parquery’s parking slot guiding system, which uses artificial intelligence to inform customers of available parking.

In Bahrain, Huawei helped deploy a smart campus system that is based on its WiFi box, switch and industry switch at the local IKEA outlet, she stated. “We learned to provide an end-to-end solution to improve sales efficiency.”