Huawei plans to exploit its growth trajectory in the Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) region after audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2016 showed that the region is now the firm's second largest revenue contributor.

Growing technology solutions uptake in Africa among other regions in EMEA led to annual revenue of Kshs 7.7 trillion (US$75.1 billion), which represents a 32% growth over the previous year.

EMEA contributed Kshs 2.2 Trillion (US$22 billion) in revenue coming in second after China - which is the firm's largest market.

Cyril Liang Xu, Director of Government Affairs and Public Communications for Huawei Kenya, credits some of the initiatives implemented in the African market throughout 2016 for the overall spike in the company's profit.

He says Huawei will enter into partnerships to expand its presence in the African market broadly and in Kenya in particular.

"We believe that this fiscal year will see us deepen our roots in the market by collaborating with companies such as Safaricom and the ICT Authority to offer Kenyans needs-based innovative technologies."

Huawei says Kenya has untapped potential which the company plans to leverage through innovations that include smart transport and smart grid ICT solutions that will help to address urbanisation challenges.

5G internet connections and Internet of Things (IoT) technology will also receive investment from the company in 2017 in order to exploit Kenya's mobile penetration rate (88%) and internet user figures (69.6%).

Eric Xu, Rotating CEO of Huawei, said, "In 2016, Huawei maintained its strategic focus and achieved solid growth. As humanity continues to explore and make new breakthroughs in the digital world, digitisation and increasing intelligence present huge business opportunities for all industries, and are also paving the road for new growth for the ICT industry."

Huawei's Enterprise Business Group generated approximately Kshs 607 billion (US$5.9 billion) in annual revenue last year which is an increase of 47%, while the Consumer Business Group shipped 139 million smartphones during 2016, and reported approximately Kshs 2.7 trillion (US$25.9 billion) in annual revenue, up 44%.