During the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Huawei and Standard Bank South Africa (SBSA) signed a strategic co-operation agreement, to accelerate digital transformation of the financial sector and enhance South Africa’s ability to continue growing its digital industries.
Jason Cao, CEO of Huawei Digital Finance BU, gave the welcoming address which set the scene for the day’s discussions. He spoke about the established relationship between Huawei and SBSA, Africa’s largest bank, in several countries.
“We are signing an agreement for the future because we share a common goal of achieving excellence. Huawei’s cutting-edge technologies and global digital transformation experiences will help SBSA accelerate financial infrastructure upgrade and digital transformation. This will set the bar for digital transformation on the African continent.”
Gene Zhang, CEO of Huawei South Africa Enterprise Business, commented: “Huawei has served over 3 700 global financial services clients. We are driving Africa’s growth, and doing our best to support to South Africa’s digital transformation via the technology co-operation with Standard Bank.”
Speaking at the event Will Meng, CEO of Huawei South Africa, said: “The synergies between our organisations will pave the way for innovative solutions and sustainable growth. By integrating Huawei’s cutting-edge technology with Standard Bank’s robust financial services, we are poised to offer seamless and secure digital banking experiences to tens of millions of customers. This partnership is not just about increasing sales but creating flourishing digital industries across Africa.”
Khomotso Molabe, group CIO of Standard Bank PPB, added: “We are here today to celebrate and cement a very important strategic cooperation between Standard Bank Group and Huawei.”
Molabe said the agreement will succeed because it is based on values of, “mutual benefit, open communication, support for each other’s interests and most importantly, long-term planning. We are already using Huawei’s award-winning storage technology in South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, and Zambia,” he added.
Partnerships that create a better society
Funeka Montjane, group CEO of Standard Bank PPB said the MOU was the “beginning of the journey of excellence and growing our business together, but the kind of business that makes people’s lives better”.
Montjane said partnering with Huawei will not only help their systems meet customer demands, but it will also benefit society. For example, the collaboration can enhance Standard Bank’s digital crowdfunding platform which connects students from rural areas “who would have not had an opportunity to study without access to that funding.”
She concluded that it is a significant partnership because “technology connects people”.
Huawei leverages leading innovative technologies and draws on its extensive expertise to help customers succeed through open collaboration with financial institutions and ecosystem partners, always looking for new ways to create value for our customers.
By the end of August 2024, Huawei had served over 3 700 financial customers in more than 80 countries and regions, including 53 of the world’s top 100 banks. Huawei had also established strategic partnerships with more than 80 large banks, insurers, and securities companies across the globe, becoming their trusted partner in digital transformation.