Huawei has officially opened its new flagship service center in an upmarket Johannesburg suburb following a soft run of the new facility over the past week.

The company claims the centre has been established because of an increase in sales of its premium brands in South Africa, and its global ranking (3rd) in smartphones.

Charlene Munilall, GM of Huawei Consumer Business Group SA says the centre provides training sessions, onsite device repairs, accessories, among other services. This has proved useful in building customer relations globally.

"Service centres have provided consumers around the world with a one-stop destination for wide range of Huawei mobile services and accessories, but more importantly the opportunity to interact with us. We have service centres but this is not a traditional service centre, it is an experience store because it has got the elements of service as well as interaction with our product range,"

"It is first on the continent because South Africa is the biggest market in Africa at this point. It could have been Nigeria, but they have been having issues with the slip of the naira - the devaluation of the naira - so South Africa was the logical choice from an African perspective," said Munilall.

The services centre in Johannesburg employs four front staff and four back staff and the next Huawei service store is scheduled to be opened next week in Cape Town.

"We do have plans to open more service centers across Africa. From a South African perspective we have plans to roll out several more stores for the rest of this year and Q1 of next year. I am assuming that from a continental perspective we will want to be doing the same thing, but I am not sure of the timelines for that."