Huawei Pushes ‘Everything-as-a-Service’ For Kenya’s Banks

Huawei hosted executives in the Kenyan Banking Sector at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Nairobi to discuss on how to accelerate digital transformation using Huawei solutions and innovations. The discussions majorly focused on Huawei Finance Cloud solution that aims to revolutionize the financial sector in Kenya with offering banking cloud as a service.

As digital transformation accelerates across Africa, cloud computing is no longer a choice but a necessity. Studies indicate that over 70% of banks in Kenya have either adopted or are actively exploring cloud solutions to enhance operational efficiency, security, and customer experience. However, challenges such as regulatory compliance, security, and integration complexities remain key concerns.

During the event, Huawei experts presented the different cloud-backed solutions that are offered by the global Cloud giant. Huawei has expertise as a service, technology as a service, and infrastructure as a service already. With the help of Artificial Intelligence and its robust cloud infrastructure, Huawei now does ‘Everything-as-a-service’ including Banking solutions which were the major highlight of the event.

Speaking at the event, Huawei Cloud’s Chief Technology Officer, Kenneth Olang’, talked about the history of Cloud and why it is important in the digital transformation journey for banks.

“The foundation of cloud is making everything as a service. This is how our customers consume our services and also gives trust to our customers that we will safeguard the customer’s data,” Olang’ said.

Huawei started its journey in Africa in 2018 where it set up its data centers in South Africa and from there has managed to build and grow and come into the rest of Africa, basically providing services for the whole of Africa.

“When we talk about everything as a service, we simply mean that our services are not limited to anyone, we have products and solutions customized to the different markets and different entities. That way, we are able to ensure that all our customers are happy, and all our customers get what they want from us,” Olang’ further said adding that Huawei has localized its services and its support to make it easier to achieve ‘everything-as-a-service’.

Speaking at the same event, Harrison Li, the Chief Solutions Architect at Huawei Cloud, talked of the cybersecurity solutions that come with Huawei Cloud and how the human factor in cybersecurity is also crucial.

“Cybersecurity also comes from internal systems, you need to be protected from global hackers and also from the risks of internal errors by your staff. Banking is now more open because you have internet, mobile, digital banking so data can be exposed and it is important to consider data protection,” Li said.

On the other hand, Absa Group’s Eric Kimonye, spoke of what banks are looking for when choosing the cloud solutions to use.

“Tools that banks are using have to be really compliant because we need to demonstrate to our customers that we can protect them. When looking at vendors to supply these products, we ensure that they have products that will help us protect our customers,” Kimonye reiterated.