In Uganda, recent cyber attacks have targeted the financial industry with key focus on mobile money operators and commercial banks which have lost millions of dollars to hackers. By this trend, Huawei Uganda as a leading ICT infrastructure provider has made cybersecurity a top priority for all its partners in order to protect them from all kinds of cyberattacks.

The emergence of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud computing, 5G, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has brought to book a new series of threats that can only be dealt with through collaboration from ICT companies, consumer enterprises, and Government to foster new cyber regulations.

On a balanced scale, ICT technologies bring huge social and economic benefits, but it also becomes critical to manage associated cybersecurity risks. For instance, the more digital transformation is enabled in developing countries, its the more cyber resilience becomes a must with data and privacy protection as key elements for industrial transformation.

Over the years, the more ICT technologies have developed, it’s the less sophisticated attacks have become since users are aware of all present cyber threats and hacking tricks that may befall them. When the Internet emerged in 1983, cracking and guessing passwords was the common trend of cyber attacks, but of recent AI and IOT attacks have made all old attacks obsolete.

To protect customers and partners, Huawei Uganda has outlined cybersecurity and privacy protection as top priorities that can be achieved through complete end-to-end (E2E) network, employee, and supply chain security. Through cooperation with customers to maintain stable, reliable, and secure networks in situations like natural disasters, conflicts, or hacker attacks, Huawei Uganda has stamped end-to-end security practices as key to fighting evolving cyber-attacks.

“We look forward to continuing to grow our open, progressive relationship with our partners across Uganda.”

says Gavin, the Managing Director of Huawei Uganda.

Over the past year or so, digital transformation accelerated at an unprecedented rate in societies around the world. Whether we were working, learning, or staying in touch with friends and family, being online became more critical than ever. Even as vast numbers of people were adapting to their new realities, however, it became increasingly apparent that equally large numbers of people were shut out from being able to do so.

Given that the theme of this year’s Telecommunication & Information Society Day, which took place on 17 May, is “Accelerating Digital Transformation in challenging times​”​, it’s worth examining how big that gap is and how it can be bridged.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, approximately 800-million people are not connected to the mobile internet. Of those, some 520-million can access the mobile internet but don’t, because of factors such as smartphone penetration and lack of skills while 270-million cannot access the mobile internet because they don’t have the requisite coverage. Across the region, 4G broadband coverage is at just 21 percent.

The figures are even more stark when it comes to fixed-line internet connectivity. According to figures from research firm Ovum, there are just 6.6-million fixed-line internet subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa.  While numbers are projected to grow three-fold by 2023, that still represents a small fraction of the region’s population. Those figures make it clear that the region needs to address a major internet infrastructure shortfall.

The benefits of growing internet accessibility and access are obvious. In 2019, in Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 650 000 jobs were supported directly by the mobile ecosystem and more than 1.4-million informal jobs in 2019. It also contributed more than US$17-billion to public funding through the course of the year.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has also established that a 10% increase in mobile broadband penetration in Africa would generate an increase of 2.5% in GDP per capita.  That’s to say nothing of the benefits that better and more affordable mobile internet can have on education, healthcare, and government services. With easily accessible internet connectivity, people can search for jobs, gain new skills, and access government services without having to travel to a physical location and potentially stand in long queues.

As we have seen, the pandemic has caused economic and social devastation and changed the way we live, work, study and socialize, bringing about an era of social distancing. One of the most significant changes is the acceleration of digital transformation.

African policymakers have realised that access to broadband is critical for mitigating the effects of the pandemic and boosting economic recovery in the post-Covid era. With changes in people’s behaviours and mindsets, broadband will also continue to provide opportunities for African countries to leapfrog obstacles to sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development.      

Of course, the responsibility to create access doesn’t lie with government alone. Corporates also have a role to play. At Huawei, we recognise this and have backed a number of initiatives that aim to help grow access in areas where it’s needed most.

In July last year, for example, we launched the DigiSchool project in partnership with a local operator and a non-profit organisation. As response to the call to ensure that all South African school children can read fluently for meaning, the programme aims to connect more than 100 urban and rural primary schools to broadband internet.

Additionally, we’ve rolled out DigiTrucks in several African countries, which enable everyone from students to entrepreneurs to learn how to use computers and connect with the digital world. Earlier this year, we also announced a partnership with Ghanaian operators to build more than 2000 base stations in remote areas of that country to connect the unconnected.

From a healthcare perspective, meanwhile, with broadband connections, Lifebank, a pioneering Nigerian startup that delivers blood and other essential medical supplies to hospitals. By keeping the startup and its riders connected, we can ensure that hospitals get urgent supplies when they are needed.

These kinds of projects, however, only serve to illustrate how much need for accessible, affordable broadband there really is across Sub-Saharan Africa. They represent a glimpse at the kind of access that everyone should have and which players across society should look to provide.

For more than a decade, the United Nations has recognised that the internet is a catalyst for sustainable development. As the events of the past year or so have shown, however, far too many people are unable to enjoy those rights because they lack access and connectivity.

We will all benefit from widening access and bridging this divide. There is no question that it should be a major priority for governments, corporates, and civil society players alike and that it should be an ongoing one.  

Editor’s Note: The Above Article is by Leo Chen, the President of Huawei Southern Africa Region

In IT security, hacker backdoors are often realized through the interoperability of various systems running different code. In the case of MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money, the ability for customers to make direct bank and cross-network transfers caused a vulnerability.

Reportedly, Pegasus Technologies – a Ugandan IT systems company is one of the authorized MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money API providers that make it possible for customers to transact with specific underlying services including the ability to transact with bank accounts.

Other known authorized Mobile Money API companies in Uganda include Africa is Talking, Beyonic, Yo Uganda, among many others. But in the course of last week, Pegasus Technologies reportedly fell prey of attackers that robbed MTN and Airtel Money funds with Stanbic Bank as their stable link of choice.

How Hackers attacked MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money

With Cybersecurity as a growing concern in the world, backdoors are known to be present in several IT systems including most sophisticated services hosted in secure and well set up data centers.

Through a vulnerable backdoor reportedly discovered at Pegasus Technologies, Hackers got direct access to Mobile Money systems by disguising transactions as valid processes between customers and Stanbic Bank as well as to other telcos (MTN – Airtel and Vice versa).

Notably, Pegasus handles MTN-Airtel and Airtel-MTN as well as other telco to telco mobile money transfer processes. On top of that, the company handles Stanbic Bank’s Flexi Pay service that allows customers to pay for goods and services using mobile money.

So, on Thursday 1st October 2020, Hackers plotted a rogue attack on Pegasus systems and disguised silent transactions as MTN to Airtel, Airtel to MTN, MTN to Stanbic Bank, and Airtel to Stanbic Bank, as well as Stanbic Bank to Mobile money transfers.

Routing safely through Thursday night, to Friday, until Saturday. Within the short timeframe, hackers had reportedly sent themselves over UGX 1.3 Billion, withdrawn over UGX 900 Million on Airtel money, and double the amount through MTN Mobile Money.

“From Thursday night, the hack went on undetected until Saturday. By this time, hackers had sent themselves almost UGX1.3 billion but had managed to withdraw UGX900 million from Airtel Money. We estimate MTN also lost almost twice the same amount of money since they are mobile money leaders. When the fraud was detected all transactions going through Pegasus Technologies, were suspended,”

A Source told the CEO East Africa Magazine

With only IGX 1.3billion earmarked as an estimate, the hackers may have transacted more money to each other within the dark timeframe (Thursday night to Saturday) before being blocked out. So, the figure is estimated to be higher with more billions of shillings expected to be declared as lost.

Why Hackers Targeted MTN, Airtel and Stanbic

• Financial Gain (Theft)
• Utilize the chance of a vulnerable backdoor (failed/corrupt databases)
• Steal customer funds (mobile money and bank balances)
• To bankrupt mobile money service operators and cause insecurity beliefs/alarms.

Apparently, several Ugandan news blogs have attached the recent hacks to the growing political atmosphere in Uganda. However, by pure standards, the hack is not associated with any political movement or pressure resulting into the loss of funds by the trio.

Instead, a group of hackers utilised a backdoor (Pegasus) to gain control over mobile money transactions, and in the end transferred a huge sum of money between owned accounts with only UGX 1.3billion sighted as the leaked amount at the moment.

Hence, the core reason why hackers attacked mobile money systems hosted by MTN, Airtel and further used Stanbic bank as an extra gateway through a 3rd party portal, was to utilise the End of Month window (a peak timeframe for Bank and mobile money transactions) to run rogue code, and sniff targeted brands.

By IT security standards, the vulnerability option may have been located in Pegasus’ systems code. Although IT companies route with closed source code/software not supported with GNU licenses (open source), a vulnerability in code can’t fail to miss in the mix which could be with a missing update or system fault.

While speaking to CEO Magazine, the Pegasus Technologies Managing Director Ronald Azirwe could neither admit that hackers attacked through a backdoor at the company nor deny as he said:

“Sadly I can’t comment on that. I can’t confirm or deny anything of the sort. I can’t speak about it. MTN/Stanbic/Airtel should be able to tell you whether it is Pegasus or not,”

Mr. Ronald Azirwe told a reporter

The MTN, Airtel, and Stanbic Security Response to the Attacks

Through a Joint press release shared with the Tech Point Magazine team, MTN, Airtel, and Stanbic acknowledged the presence of an issue that hit the institutions, but didn’t spread to customer accounts noting that account balances were not affected.

Henceforth, Attackers successfully launched attacks on Thursday night, went successful through Friday, only for their presence to be noticed on Saturday 3rd October.

In a bid to block the attackers activity, MTN and Airtel blocked access to mobile money accounts as a measure to implement a Denial of Service (DOS) status to safeguard customer accounts.

However, this did go well with unsuspecting customers who took waged war on the hosting telcos via Twitter and shared their grievances.

At the moment, Stanbic Bank has also activated a DOS (Denial of Service) mode blocking their *290# mobile banking service until the root cause of the attack is identified, and the backdoor sealed to avoid future incidences.

For now, security authorities are on the hunt for the group of black hat hackers who may have robbed MTN, Airtel, and Stanbic in a period of less than 3-days with rogue transactions performed through a 3rd party provider system.

Given the fact that Smartphone trends continue to shift designs year after year, buying the Airtel 4G Smartphone offer could be a good choice given its improvements similar to other 2023 entry-level releases such as the MTN Kabode Supa.

By impressions, the device ships a total of dual camera setup consisting of 1 Rear camera, and 1 Front selfie camera. On top of that, a high bezels 4.5 Inch Screen rules the front with a lineup of entry-level internals detailed on its Specifications sheet.

Airtel 4G Smartphone Specifications

Should you buy the Cheapest 4G Smartphone from Airtel?

Based on the current features equipped by most low-range smartphones, Airtel’s 4G Smartphone is not a perfect companion to buy in 2023. But with 4G LTE supported mounted to the smartphone, then it’s one of the best entry-level companions you can consider.

Currently, the latest low-range smartphone in Uganda is the Itel P38. By display, the device sports a waterdrop notch aboard a 6-inch Screen with lesser bezels to its design. On top of that, a non-removable 5000mAh battery powers the device.

But with a top flare of features making it a close to midrange release with a UGX 299,000 price tag, the Airtel 4G Smartphone then beats it by price and 4G support.

Likely, the base P38 supports 2G/3G straight out of the box. For 4G connectivity, a Pro version shines in check at a hyped price of UGX 399,000 contrary to UGX 200,000 for Airtel’s device offer.

Other releases like the Realme C3, Nokia C2/C3 equip 4G connectivity, but come at a higher price range between UGX 300,000 and UGX 350,000.

Hence, with the Airtel 4G Smartphone retailing for as low as UGX 200,000, it’s a better choice if you’re upgrading from a feature phone to the smartphone legion.

All in All, depending on your purchase intent, the Airtel 4G Smartphone could be you best choice by price. But if you closely consider having the latest catchy features, then roaming through a list of budget-friendly releases could land you a better smartphone.

In May 2019, the United States Department of Commerce added Huawei on an entity list.

Even with Cyber and National security as the top claims banning Huawei from the Central North American country, the US further extended Huawei’s ban to May 2021, after a full year of compliance and no-Involvement in the country’s business and tech ecosystem. 

This proves that Cybersecurity is not the core claim, given the timeframe of the ban, but rather a goal to limit Huawei from procuring necessary components to up its 5G division, and general technology equipment catalogue.

As a result of the ban, Huawei as a fast pace company has since 2019 devised ways to serve its customer base and continue to blend as a 5G industry leader. The Company’s roadmap includes, a custom operating system to power its Smartphones, and procurement of technology components from other countries and suppliers like Samsung in South Korea.

In the light of the current Corona Virus Pandemic, the unilateral changes of trade rules by the US will hurt the world’s efforts in recovering the economy in the post Covid-19 world.

With the new rule, exported semi-conductors and technology equipment would require a company to request for authorization before using the specified technology. 

By way of example, the new rule is an equivalent of noting that a Company is not allowed to make face masksduring the coronavirus pandemic, because a pair of American scissors are used in the mask production line, unless initially approved to do so.

But Given the highly interdependent semi-conductor industry with no room for a country or company to build a vast supply chain of its own. These Changes would further detoriate the already hard-hit global economy that requires urgent need for an open, collaborative, and yet stable global value chain.

In opposition to the US proposed changes in export controls that would give Huawei a clear signal to move-on to other suppliers, SEMI—A Global Industry association serving the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, through its President Ajit Manocha wrote to President Donald Trump on how the new rules would harm chip making exports that bring-in over $20billion in revenue annually.

“ The move will serve as a disincentive for further investments and innovation in the U.S. and lead to the design-out of U.S. technology and components “ Manocha wrote.

He further noted that, the potential to create uncertainty for supply chains critical in the current COVID19 Pandemic fight, require steady unity. With an upper merit, top exported-to companies like Huawei would devise new ways to procure if not manufacture chips in several countries including China, in a bid to stay blind from US suppliers of semiconductor design tools and production equipment.

In the shadow of Cyber security claims by the US that Huawei has continuously denied, the twist in export rules continues to justify the competition scale in 5G leadership in order to give US companies, and its allies an advantage to participate in the 5G race.

In admission, the US Attorney general William Barr remarked during the China initiative Conference by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), that Huawei as a leading 5G supplier on every continent except North America would need to be slowed down, in order for local companies to join the leadership race.

5G Infrastructure business relies on radio access network (RAN) facilities, And now, China’s Huawei and ZTE are the world’s leading RAN suppliers taking a lion share of 40% with aggressive attempts to pursue the balance shared by Finland’s Nokia with 17%, and Sweden’s Erickson rocking a 14% share, among other suppliers.

Hence, with currently no American Company dealing in 5G equipment, a need to slow down Huawei as the Industry leader would buy private companies more time to encroach on a Hyena’s share as AG William Barr added.

“ Within the next five years, 5G global territory and application dominance will be determined. The question is whether, within this window, the United States and our allies can mount sufficient competition to Huawei to retain and capture enough market share to sustain the kind of long-term and robust competitive position necessary to avoid surrendering dominance to China. The time is very short, and we and our allies have to act quickly. “ Said William Barr 

Additionally, the extension of Huawei’s ban and presence on the US entity list confirms the fate of slowing Huawei’s full throttle drive to domination. 

“ We have to make a decision on the horse we’re going to ride in this race. Who is the 5G equipment supplier or suppliers that we will rely on to compete against Huawei around the globe, to win contracts from operators and blunt Huawei’s drive to domination? it’s all very well to tell our friends and allies that they shouldn’t install Huawei’s, but whose infrastructure are they going to install? “ – Remarked William Barr 

However, the limitations pounded on Huawei branded with Cybersecurity, not only affect its drive to 5G leadership, but also delay 5G rollout in African countries and US allies like the United Kingdom. 

Currently, several countries have tested, but not fully implemented 5G due to the low rollout rate. In Africa, MTN tested 5G in South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria, as Kenya’s Safaricom prepares to fully implement the network standard with Huawei as its supplier of choice.

So, as the US continues to shatter Huawei’s path to 5G dominance, its competitors are focused-on, as the potential drivers to share a path ruled by the 5G giant. As a matter of fact, the US ban has continuously forced Huawei to seek a new path with non-US suppliers due to tightened license requirements.

With alternative paths off the US roadmap shining to Huawei, Continuous bans, and subsequent cybersecurity claims could soon have Zero effect to the Company’s future. Identically, Huawei’s continued evolution for custom systems in its enterprise, cloud and customer delivery divisions continue to give it an advantage in the 5G sphere amidst any future claims tagged to the company.

So, discriminating a company with claims by its country of Origin is wrong for the future of 5G, let alone, the value Huawei creates for its customers and clients evidenced by its market value and performance is outstanding.

Henceforth, the United States could be in a tough trade-war with China, but the involvement of creatively fast-evolving Companies like Huawei (Important to its supply chain) in subsequent bans, and false claims to scare its allies, simply confirm that the US is shooting itself in the foot, but not realizing it at the moment.

Well, several businesses have shifted to door to door service deliveries using courier services like SafeBoda among others. However, a majority also chose to take their services online to reach new customer bases through social media, and custom website portals.

According to Jumia’s 2019 mobile report, Uganda’s Internet usage rate clings at 19 million users with 2.5 million active on social media for information and social intents. With a population of 36million citizens, it means Internet users take a lion’s share off Uganda’s total population.

The bullish trend in Internet usage is attributed to the rise of more midrange and low-end smartphones ruled by popular brands like Tecno, Infinix, Itel Mobile, Xiaomi among others. More so, affordable close to Smartphone fashion feature phones like the MTN Kamunye Smart bevel the price for a connection much lower.

On the other hand, the increasing affordability of Internet Bundles through offers like Airtel’s freaky friday, MTN Gaga, don’t be cheated among others attract subscribers to taste what the Internet has to offer. It’s to this that several companies have adopted digital marketing in their key business strategies.

Luckily, businesses that have built a strong online presence in the light of the current Corona Virus Pandemic period, are able to execute in Normal mode even with fewer employees reporting to work.

Leading the pike, online food delivery services like Jumia Food, CafeJavas, SafeBoda Food now have more restaurants supported on their platforms to reach their normal and new customers.

In an alternate fashion, food businesses without digital portals and listings on delivery services now suffer from low traffic to their stores.

But if proper digital strategies are applied by these businesses, the rise to glory becomes a perfect path even with the current COVID19 Pandemic period.

In fact, eCommerce wings like Jumia have registered a rise in user orders and behavior the same way Amazon inked a rise in orders attracting a vacuum to be filled by over 75,000 employees.

Hence with a clean sheet for businesses to improve their current digital strategies for more effective campaigns in this COVID19 ruled timeframe. Only Businesses with core online presence triumph with bullish spikes in customer activity factored by their intents and online adoption behaviors.

A majority of user comments on social media are attached to data depletion, though others believe Airtel Internet is just slow compared to its competitors like MTN, Africell, Smile, UTL and now Lyca mobile.

As per a recent study conducted by the Tech Point Magazine team, we found out that many users think Airtel Internet depletes so fast, and on a lucky patch, the speeds have gradually improved.

We held the study in areas of Kampala, Gulu, Mityana, Fort portal, Kigumba, Soroti, and Katakwi with our findings yet to be published soon in conjunction with the results from our Poll below.

According to a section of users in Kampala, they mainly use Airtel Internet on weekends when the telco’s Freaky Friday offer is active. Even though the offer depletes so fast__as they say, buying the bundle multiple times plays the prolonged trick of having more data to run through the weekend.

For the rest of the days, they use MTN or Africell due to much faster the Internet speeds reportedly supplied by the two telcos. A majority further prefer MTN in particular due to faster speeds, and easy access to Airtime and Mobile money services.

Henceforth, In the light of UCC’s findings ranking Airtel as the fastest mobile Internet provider in Uganda, and the telco’s recent achievement of 2,000 network masts across the country, is Airtel the fastest mobile Internet provider to date?

Share with us your opinion by participating in the poll or with a comment below.

[totalpoll id=”10005″]

Editor’s Note: Results and Comments from this Poll will be published by the end of April 2020 alongside our speed test results from areas we visited.

In the smartphone industry, popular midrange brands like TECNO Mobile, Infinix, Oppo, Vivo, and Itel are set to launch fewer devices in 2020 with almost no release currently rumored in the first quarter.

On the other hand, high-end manufacturers like Huawei __that registered 2019 as its worst year are trying to cope up with the trend by creating regional assembly plants to launch Smartphones in those particular regions.

In Uganda, the fate of no mid-range releases in the first quarter has spiked an increase in market prices with no signs of when new lows will be met. However, the rumor mill has it that attempts are being made to launch new devices amidst the Corona Virus threats.

What you should do in preparation for the low-releases count

Since Chinese manufacturers rule the mid-range and partially the high-end Smartphones’ market. The Corona Virus statistics around the world will greatly impact on how Chinese exports can be accepted in Africa, and other regions across the world.

This means, if the outbreak continues to visit new countries, then you should prepare for the change. In this case, if you’re an upgrade junkie, It’s time you stick to your current Smartphone for the next few months.

In case you had plans to purchase a 2019 release like Infinix’s Hot 8 or TECNO’s Camon 12, then the best time to place your order is now before retail prices continue to rise.

All in all, Chinese assembled/manufactured smartphones are set to meet scarcity levels the more Corona Virus continues to spread. Hence, the next time you visit a Smartphone store and can’t find your favorite brand or meet an increase in the prices, then, buying a used device on a platform like Jiji could become your next choice.

Similar to Cisco’s Netriders competition where our a member of our team is one of the notable wall of fame top talents under the CCENT category, Huawei’s approach is based on a full innovation and simulations model.

It is due to the fact that Huawei runs a certification path majorly affiliated to networks careers, that it brings to book successful innovators and top talents for a regional shakedown before a grand-global narration. With less of the icing, here are 2 things you need to know Huawei’s annual ICT competitions.

It is Based on Huawei’s Certification scheme and runs on 4 Units

Huawei’s Certification scheme is majorly a networking package that further blends to play Data and cloud computing. Hence the ICT competition is majorly run on Huawei’s certification path strides.

Cloud Computing, Networks, Artificial intelligence, and big data are the 4 Units on which Huawei’s 2nd ICT competition round will fully run with key focus to nurturing ICT talent from major Universities in Uganda and selected academies in Sub Saharan Africa through the same scheme.

The Competition is Open to Over 6000 Students in Uganda

In a presser shared by Hauwei Uganda, Over 6,000 students will benefit from its 2nd Competitions round selected from various Universities in the country. As a norm, the selected Universities must have a Huawei Academy affiliation to their ICT departments.

Among the already registered Universities, Makerere Univerity leads the pike as Kyambogo, KIU, Ndejje among others share the Uganda Academy route.

Luckily, University Students from other campuses can also join the competition league by enrolling to one of the supported academies without necessarily being members of that campus.

Spoiler Alert: The Overall Prizes are bigger than any other ICT competition scheme

Cisco runs its Netriders competition on a completely transparent forum, but it’s overall prizes only include a top 5 regional winners coverage and a trip to SanFrancisco for the best Podium finisher.

However, Huawei is offering much bigger prizes for both its country-based winners, regional and the grand global finalists. As a fact, finalists from Uganda will meet up with fellow finalists from other participating countries for a regional shakedown in SouthAfrica.

Regional Winners from the South Africa raffle will further progress to a global competition featuring fellow winners from all participating countries for a grand tour in China and a final competition with bigger prizes up for grabs including an opportunity to work with Huawei on its hyped 5G projects.

Among the Key Huawei operations in almost all countries it exists include IT support and telecommunication equipment supplies. But In Uganda, the company recently grew to the tender records for the Installation of CCTV surveillance cameras in major city towns making it the biggest role it locally houses.

While the CCTV Installations have of recent rose above the grid to formulate allegations by Wall Street that has so far been confirmed as Fake news by Huawei. The Company’s operations in Uganda are broad and range from support to innovators, IT management services all the way to provision of Internet services and here is a full taste of what the company executes in Uganda.

IT Equipment providers

Huawei is among the World’s major IT equipment manufacturers, On the list, companies like Cisco, IBM, Juniper boast with both networking and server management equipment. Huawei, in particular, is best known for its cutting edge Networking equipment that is mainly used by telcos all over the world.

In Uganda, Huawei provides network equipment to almost all telecoms like MTN, Airtel among others, though it competes with ZTE in this particular jungle of equipments provision.

However, Huawei has a certification path for professionals relying on its equipment for administration and problem-solving. As a fact, the company recently rolled out a certification academy at Makerere University for students who wish to expand their networking careers.

CCTV Surveillance Providers, But not managers

In Uganda, Huawei is the only legalized CCTV camera provider for all major towns and roads in the country. The CCTV Camera project was kickstarted by H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as a move to cut the fast-rising rate of crime in the country.

In less than 2 years since the CCTV project commencement, the results of these cameras have been appreciated by the general public, though the Traffic police department has benefited more than any other Institution on the project.

In Kampala alone, Huawei has installed thousands of Cameras on major roads and round-abouts to help the Uganda Police that manages these cameras to fully execute its duties with the Chinese brand only acting as the on-ground Installation masters.

Huawei neither controls these cameras nor gets to know what happens in the Uganda Police control rooms during any surveillance sessions. A fact that draws back to the Wall Street letter which suggested that Huawei fueled Government to cub opposition leaders through both digital hacks and surveillance attempts.

IT Support providers

Huawei Uganda houses hundred of IT support professionals at its Headquarters in Kamwokya and these provide realtime support to all its equipment clients. Additionally, the company also offers general IT support to private companies of special occasions through its partnerships wing.

Local Innovation Funders / Supporters

The African Startup ecosystem is still registering a shooting high streak because of multiple funders and Innovation hubs that act as breeding grounds for all mind wide open individuals.

Like any other global funders, Huawei Uganda funds innovators in Uganda to create new solutions and solve real-world solutions. Recently. the company announced the top innovation package winners and China trip runner ups at Makerere University through its Innovation suite.

Through the annual seeds for futurecompetition, Huawei Uganda selects top developers to support them with professional training and exposure to real-life solutions in a fast pace environment.

It’s through these trainings and competitions that the company has often been ranked as one of the best Innovation support wings in Uganda.

Internet/ Network Service providers

Unlike Mobile broadband Internet that is provided by major telecoms in Uganda like MTN Uganda that recently rolled out a double data spree and Airtel Uganda crazing Fridays with bulk data on a competitive path with Africell. Huawei instead poses as a fiber only Internet provider available to private firms or individuals.

Just like any other fiber internet provider in Uganda like Google Squared, iWay Africa, Roke Telkom among others. Huawei’s Internet packages are tamed for private institutions and individuals with bulk offers on a per KB basis.

All in All, Huawei Uganda is a major IT player in the country and its status has not crossed lines with any authorities on a blacklist plake. Henceforth, as the company recently issued a legal letter to Wall Street, It’s progress and operations are untouched in Uganda and it continues to operate legally with its US status currently in standby mode.