This year's annual celebration saw the return of Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi.

Huawei Africa Connect 2024 Sub-Saharan Africa kicked off this week at the Sandton Convention Centre, with Huawei senior executives announcing a new era for the enterprise-focused annual event.

Previously known as Huawei Eco Connect, this year's edition underlined the company's commitment to Sub-Saharan Africa and providing innovative solutions to its partners in the region.

Opening the event, David Wang, executive director of the board and chairman of the ICT Infrastructure Managing Board for Huawei, stated that it was exciting to see so many governments and businesses in the region racing to go digital, with many pioneers already deploying intelligent applications.

He said: “We have invested 156 billion US dollars in R&D over the last decade. This ongoing investment has helped us lead the industry”.

“Focusing on networks, storage, computing, and cloud, we work with partners to tailor ICT infrastructure products and solutions to customers' business scenarios.”

Hover Gao, president of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa, lauded Africa’s young population, its blooming cities, and bold innovations across industries from fintech to clean energy. He added that the region is now faced with “an unprecedented opportunity to reshape its future.”

Africa Connect 2024 focused on how the intelligent digital era in Africa is impacting sectors like finance, transportation, manufacturing, internet service provision and small to medium enterprises. Huawei experts took to the stage to expand on the role their products and services will play in the intelligent era.

This year's annual celebration saw the return of Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi. He commended Huawei for continuing to hold its yearly event in Gauteng province.

"We are proud as Gauteng to be the host province and to provide all the necessary support needed to ensure that we continue to succeed in our relationship and build a lasting partnership," he said.

Lesufi stated that he leads "a government that wants to embrace innovation". He stated that he would like to see more solutions to reduce crime in economic areas such as Johannesburg.