Chinese tech giant Huawei has renewed its commitment to support Botswana in building ICT infrastructure.

David Zhang, MD, Huawei Botswana, said the company has taken an active part in Botswana’s ICT planning and development and will assist the country roll out new tech facilities.

“We have built successful relationships with local operators and enterprises, so as to support building ubiquitous connectivity and ICT sectors in Botswana,” said Zhang.

Zhang made the remarks at Huawei’s first Telecom Congress in Botswana, where the company launched a series of network and data centre solutions.

“To showcase our commitment towards promoting socio-economic development and stimulating the digital economy in Botswana, we have released a series of our latest products and solutions.

“Our solutions are aimed at delivering ultimate 5G experiences, premium and intelligent ultra-broadband connectivity, digital and intelligent transformation,” said Zhang.

Among the portfolio are 98 new products designed to improve a campus network, which include mid-range and low-end switches with industry leading GE ports and table entries, and high-end AR routers.

The company also showcased over 38 new Huawei telecom products on data centre network offering switch models tailored to storage, low latency and high reliability multicast launched for high-value markets such as finance.

Meanwhile, authorities in Botswana have implored the private sector to take the lead in the development of ICT infrastructure to support the country’s digital transformation.

Pontsho Pusoetsile, acting Permanent Secretary of Communications, Knowledge and Technology said the government wants the private sector to close the ICT infrastructure gap.

“We need to move away from an economy that’s driven by the government, to an economy driven by the private sector.

“The private sector needs to be saying to the government, ‘here are our solutions to this issue (infrastructure gap)’,” said Pusoetsile.