• This Day (Nigeria) aagm: Political Economy of Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria (2)

telecoms equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, have signed a US$200m partnership agreement for the deployment of a wireless network across Nigeria. Under the agreement, the China Development Bank will provide Nigeria with a US$200m loan for the project, while Huawei is committed to building a US$20m factory in Nigeria. In another accord Chinese telecoms company ZTE agreed to supply US$95m-worth of equipment to the communications ministry. Huawei and ZTE are also among the foreign companies said to be interested in buying a majority stake in Nigeria Telecommunications and its mobile phone unit M- Tel.
SOURCE: Business Africa
EIU ViewsWire 3 Jun 2005, Part 4 of 32
Document EIUCP00020050604e1630000e

China's Huawei says has invested 10 mln usd in Nigeria's telecom sector so far
194 words

3 June 2005

AFX Asia

AFXASI

English

(c) 2005, AFX Asia. All rights reserved.
LAGOS (XFN-ASIA) - China's Huawei Technologies has invested 10 mln usd in Nigeria's telecommunications sector since it began operations in the country six years ago, its managing director has said.
Huawei managing director John Wang told reporters in Abuja yesterday that that the money was spent on the installation of training equipment at a centre it set up in the country.
He said during the graduation ceremony of 500 trainees from the centre that since the equipment used by telecom operators were manufactured by Huawei, the company decided to set up the centre to train personnel for the growing industry.
"This will help Nigeria to save the huge amount spent on foreign exchange to send personnel abroad for training," he said.
Wang said the trainees were drawn from existing telecom firms such as South Africa's MTN, state-run NITEL, private firms V-Mobile and Reltel.
He said the company will soon start the production of telephone handsets in Nigeria as part of the liberalisation of the sector which commenced in 1999.
joa/nb/rc
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Document AFXASI0020050603e163006sh

Chinese firm invests 10 million dollars in Nigeria's telecom sector
JOA

222 words

3 June 2005

05:39 AM

Agence France Presse

AFPR

English

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005 All reproduction and presentation rights reserved.
LAGOS, June 3 (AFP) -
A Chinese firm has invested 10 million dollars (8.1 million euros) in Nigeria's telecommunications sector since it began operations in the west African country six years ago, its managing director has said.
Huawei managing director John Wang told reporters in Abuja on Thursday that the money was spent on the installation of training equipment at a centre it set up in the country.
He said during the graduation ceremony of 500 trainees from the centre that since the equipment used by telecom operators were manufactured by Huawei, the company decided to set up the centre to train personnel for the growing industry.
"This will help Nigeria to save the huge amount spent on foreign exchange to send personnel abroad for training," he said.
Wang said the trainees were drawn from existing telecom firms such as South Africa's MTN, state-run NITEL, private firms V-Mobile and Reltel.
He said the company would soon start the production of telephone handsets in Nigeria as part of the liberalisation of the sector which commenced in 1999.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of some 130 million people, has licensed several foreign and local firms to provide telecommunications services in this hitherto communications-starved country.
joa/nb
Document AFPR000020050603e163002tr

Huawei Technologies Complements Nigeria's Telecoms, Human Resource Devt
by Cletus Akwaya

2,071 words

1 June 2005

04:05 PM

All Africa

AFNWS

English

(c) 2005 AllAfrica, All Rights Reserved
Lagos, May 31, 2005 (This Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
Six years into Nigeria's fast growing telecoms sector, Huawei Technologies is leaving no one in doubt about its readiness and capacity to take a larger share of the hard and software segments of the market.
Through hard work, superior software packages, competitive pricing and comprehensive training solutions, the Chinese firm which arrived Nigeria quietly in 1999 is today making a bold step and sending clear signals to the older competitors that it has become a force to be reckoned with. Nothing gives credence to this than the fact that by end of 2004, all the four GSM operators in the country, MTN, Glomobile, Vmobile, and M-tel were enjoying products supplied by Huawei to build and expand their networks. On the whole, 14 telecom operators had acquired one form of telecom equipment or the other from Huawei. In some cases, equipment supplied by the more famous vendors were replaced by the operators with equipment from Huawei either on account of superior performance or suitability for local operations and Maintenance.
Secret Behind Success
Managing Director of the Nigerian Representative Office of the company, Mr. John Wang who spoke with THISDAY on why Huawei has become the toast of many operators had this to say: "Huawei can provide the good service after sale. Telecommunication equipment is high technology products, operator staff need to receive good training, in order to master them. For that reason, we established an ultra-modern training centre to satisfy customers' requirement. This center makes it possible for Customers' staff to be trained in Nigeria. This can save their time and money." Wang said the emphasis on customer satisfaction is the only reason why his company exists.
"The demands of our customers drive our development," he stressed The Nigerian training center built at the cost of over $7millioin in Abuja, the Nation's capital is strategically located to serve the training needs of Nigerians and indeed Africa South of the Sahara as the center is one of the two Huawei has in Africa, the second being the one in Egypt which serves the training needs of North Africa and the Middle East. The center has capacity for training in the areas of GSM, CDMA, fixed line, Intelligence Network, datacom and transmission. Already 500 Nigerians, basically staff of the operators have undergone different courses at the center. For first time buyers of Huawei equipment, a free training programme for the staff is offered for three months to enable the operator take off smoothly. This by every standard is significant contribution to the community and the IT industry when viewed against the fact courses at the center cost about $250 per day.
Future Plans For Nigeria
Huawei has big dreams for Nigeria and is positioning itself to handle even bigger business in the months and years ahead. The company has signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Federal Ministry of Communications to introduce next generation telecommunication technology (NGN) to Nigeria. According to the MOU, Huawei will bring its most advanced technology to Nigeria for mobile network, fixed network, data communications, optical network, software and services terminals(handsets). This, Wang explained would keep Nigeria on the same level with other technologically advanced parts of the world thus positioning the countryAs telecom market to lead in Africa.
In view of the successes the training centre has recorded, Huawei plans to invest more money in the expansion of the center to become the most sophisticated and most modern in Africa. The Managing Director told THISDAY that plans were also afoot to establish a research and development center in Nigeria to develop software to meet specific demands of customers. Huawei is also considering introducing scholarships for indigent students in the universities especially those studying IT related courses.
Huawei Technologies will deploy a nation-wide CDMA450 wireless access technology across Nigeria. China Development Bank will provide Nigeria with a loan of US$200 million for this project. Huawei Technologies has also committed to an additional US$20 million manufacturing investment in Nigeria.
Africa Operations
Huawei's strong presence in Nigeria is reflective of its equally strong presence in Africa. In the last three years alone, HuaweiAs wireless products including GSM, CDMA, and WCDMA have been applied in 30 countries across the continent. These include Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Chad, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo, Cote D' Ivoire , Benin and Central African Republic. Others include Southern Africa, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uganda, Somalia, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Botswana, Mozambique and Mauritius. The company's operations in these countries are controlled from two regional headquarters offices in Johannesburg, South Africa and Cairo, Egypt for North Africa and countries in the Middle East. There are also Representative offices in each country of operation. Huawei operates in Africa with about 1,500 staff, half of which are Chinese and the other half, local staff employed in each country of operation.
Huawei's Unique Techno-logy and Achievements Established in 1988, Huawei Technologies, a private high-tech company is owned by its 24,000 strong staff through a stock option plan which enables workers to own shares in the company. The company's focus on research and development(R&D) seems to be the secret behind its success. This is underscored by the fact that 11,500 members of staff of the company are involved in R&D activities with 10 per cent of the annual income invested in R&D, 33 per cent of the staff are engaged in marketing, 11 per cent in production while only 8 per cent are involved in administration. Director, Mobile Southern Africa, Dr. Fang Liangzhou in an interview told THISDAY the companyAs R&D department has about 500 employees with Doctorate degrees in different aspects of IT and associated technology and science while over 60 per cent of the R&D staff have Masters Degrees. On the whole, 85 per cent of the 24,000 staff on the pay roll of the company have at least first Degree, Liangzhou disclosed.
The company's rich human resource has indeed translated to great technological feats recorded by the company in seven critical IT areas. In the wireless network for instance, it has developed UMT/HSDPA; CDMA; GSM/GPRS; EDGE; GSM-T/GSM-R; PTT and WiMax. Under fixed line network technology, it has NGN; XDLS; switching; Access Network; Video conferencing and Terminals. In optical network, Huawei has developed LH/ULH DWDM; Metro WDM; OCS; NG-SDH(ASON); NG-SONET and FSO.
Its datacom network has products such as Router, LAN Switch; Security and VPN; VoIP; BRAS, WLAN and IT Telecom Network. The company's value added services line of products is as rich as the other product ranges. Here, it has Fixed IN; Wireless IN; Universal IN; Wireless data; CDN/SAN and OSS/BSS. As for mobile terminals, it has UMTS Handset, CDMA handset, CDMA fixed terminal; Wireless data card and wireless module. Ironically, the spread of these products is far more than the older competitors in the industry.
Liangzhou told THISDAY that the company's products have been deployed in over 90 countries including the technologically advanced nations such as Germany, UK, France, Russia, Brazil, Singapore and Thailand. In China, Huawei is clearly the leading telecoms equipment supplier. Statistics made available to THISDAY showed that Huawei is leading supplier of telecom equipment and solutions in China and ranks first or among the top three in the world telecom ratings in some aspects of their operations.
In the out gone trading year, the company recorded a turnover of $5.58billion an increase of over 45 per cent over the performance of the previous year. Of this figure, $2.28billion came from international markets. Liangzhou disclosed that from projections based on the operating environment, this year's sales may raise the company's turnover to about $8billion with international sales figures climbing to about $4billion.
Global Ranking
That Huawei is fast becoming a reputable international brand is attested to by its high rating in global telecom operations. For example, in the area of switch and NGN market,
According to Dittberner Associates, a US based consulting group, Huawei ranked No.1 in the global switching added market, with a market share of 32% during the period of 2001-2003
In yet another report, Dittberner, a reputable American telecom consultancy company in March showed that Huawei Technologies is second in the global DSLAM market with 18.9 per cent market share in 2004 but was first in the global IP DSLAM market with 38 per cent market share with over 10million lines deployed.
In the optical network market Huawei boasts of leadership place in Asia-Pacific for the past five years while it ranked third by 2004 in the global market and first worldwide in terms growth rate in the optical segment of the industry.
The company is currently handling the optical fibre cable contract for MTN. The interesting thing about Huawei's successes in this area is that it stayed ahead of the older companies dealing in optical network
Huawei's performance in GSM/GPRS and EDGE is equally impressive. It has 57million subscribers hooked to its equipment in over 45 countries. In China, it controls 40 per cent market share in the core network of GPRS with China Mobile, the world's largest operator. It has 7EDGE networks while its soft switch serves about 12million people. The company's wireless application, the Cold Division Multiple Application (CDMA) has been deployed in over 50 countries and is reputed to have successfully built the first CDMA1xEV-DO network in Western Europe. It maintains the first position in global supplies of CDMA450 with a market share of about 66.7 pr cent and also leads in UMTS with 10 commercial networks and over 30 trial networks around the world. It is indeed one of the few vendors that have achieved commercial applications in this area with contracts from Sunday in Hong Kong, Etisalat in UAE, Emtel in Mauritius, TM in Malaysia and Telfort in the Netherlands.
Huwei's technological accomplishments are best noticed in the deployment of Intelligence Network (IN) which in ordinary parlance is billing systems. And this is because this aspect of IT is perhaps the most important as it enables to absorb more subscribers and still provide high quality services. In this segment of the IT market, Huawei is first in China with a market share of 75 per cent and ranked first in global market with 21.58 per cent. It is clearly ahead of the competition as the closes Alcatel has 19.50 of the market share, followed by Siemens 12.98 per cent etc
High Profile Customers
With an impressive track record, its no surprise that Huawei has high profile customers around the globe. In China, Huawei is dealing with all the six major carriers in Mainland China including China Telecom, China Mobile, China Netcom, and china Unicom. HuaweiAs products were being used by 22 of the world's top 50 operators as at end of 2004. These include AIS in Thailand, SingTel, Telefonica, British Telecom, Neuf Telecom in France, Hutchinson Global Crossing, PCCW HKT, Telemar in Brazil, Rostel-ecom in Russia, Brasil-Telecom, Telecom Malaysia, Telecom Egypt, FIBERNET, MTN among others.
Implications For Nigeria's IT Sector and Econom
Huawei's readiness to boldly invest in the NigeriaAs IT industry has positive implications for the country's industrial and technological development. It's success so far could attract many Chinese companies to come to Nigeria. The country's quest for direct foreign investment (FDI) has over time been frustrated by unfavourable media reports about the security situation and a hostile environment. That Huawei has done profitable business in Nigeria for half a decade without regrets is a point of reference for other potential investors. Since the company has an advanced and well funded R&D division, it pays it to look into other business opportunities in Nigeria in addition to the core IT portfolio. For instance, investment into production of switch hard wares, electronics and electrical appliances will further enable the company consolidate its operations in Nigeria and also raise its returns to stakeholders.
Document AFNWS00020050602e16100007

Chinese Firm Makes $300m From Nigeria
by Cletus Akwaya

576 words

1 June 2005

04:05 PM

All Africa

AFNWS

English

(c) 2005 AllAfrica, All Rights Reserved
Abuja, May 31, 2005 (This Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
Managing Director of Huawei office in Nigeria, Dr. John Wang, yesterday said the Chinese telecoms equipment vendor made a turnover of about $300 million last year alone from its operations in Nigeria.
The company will also be investing $20 million to build a factory in Lagos for manufacturing of assorted range of mobile phone handsets and Cold Division Multiplication Access (CMDA) terminals. The factory will be operational some time next year.
Huawei manufactures a wide range of products for virtually all aspects of telecom operations including wireless network, fixed line, optical network, datacom network, value added services and mobile terminals.
The company came to Nigeria in1999 and operates offices in Lagos and Abuja as well as field operational offices in Jos, Enugu, Port Harcourt.
Wang, who briefed newsmen at the company's training centre in Abuja at a brief ceremony to mark the graduation of the 500th student of the centre, said the company's turnover came from supply of assorted equipment and training of personnel for the operators among other services.
He said at the moment, all the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operators in the country including MTN, Vmobile, Glomobile and M-tel were using equipment supplied by Huawei to deploy their networks, adding that all the 14 telecommunications companies in the country including Private Telecom operators (PTOs) were using equipment provided by Huawei.
For instance, he said, the company was handling the optic fibre network for MTN and provided CDMA for Rainbownet for deployment in Aba, Enugu and some cities in the South-east while it had just signed another contract with Oduatel to supply CDMA equipment for its network.
On the company's investment in Nigeria, Wang said the company invested $10 million in the ultra-modern Abuja training centre, besides it has concluded arrangements to build a terminals manufacturing plant for CDMA and mobile handsets which will cost about $20 million adding.
The factory, he said, was in line with the Memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Nigeria's Minister of Communications, Chief Cornelius Adebayo and President of the Chief Executive Officer of Huawei during a recent visit to China to bring the latest telecoms technology to Nigeria to enable the country to be at par with other countries of the world.
He said consistent with MOU, Huawei was also discussing with the Ministry and other operators on the possibility of introducing the 3G GSM technology in the country in the nearest future.
And as part of the Huawei's corporate social responsibility package in Nigeria, the, Managing Director disclosed that the company has donated a transmission equipment DWDM worth $2.7 million to Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) to boost its transmission .
He said the equipment, the latest technology in transmission operations has already been deployed by NITEL from Lagos to Port Harcourt.
Also, the company donated a computer laboratory to the College of Education Oro in Kwara state in January and is using the CDMA services being provided in the area by NITEL using Huawei technology to provide internet services for students of the school.
He announced plans to mount a scholarship scheme for Nigerian students in Universities just as he said the company was partnering with one of the operators to establish a social fund to be used for some development projects for communities in the country.
Document AFNWS00020050601e161002pu

Chinese telecom firm makes 300m dollars from Nigeria
602 words

1 June 2005

08:04 AM

BBC Monitoring Africa

BBCAP

English

(c) 2005 The British Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.
Text of report by Cletus Akwaya entitled "