- On Tuesday, July 9, 2024, Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni engaged in discussions with Huawei, the Chinese multinational digital communications corporation, which disclosed its intention to establish a digital prototype village in the country.
- This village will include a network tower station, a solar power station featuring Huawei's digital power micro-grid solution, and a suite of smart classroom equipment.
- The initiative aims to support the Parish Development Model (PDM) — an integrated community approach — by offering smart classrooms, remote diagnosis facilities, and smart photovoltaic cell installations without any financial burden on the Ugandan government.
The initiative will implement a Remote Diagnosis System, linking village health centres with national and regional hospitals to enhance rural healthcare. It will also provide Green Residential Smart PVs for stable, continuous power.
President Museveni has instructed the Huawei team to prepare a comprehensive proposal for the creation of a digital cloud, paving the way for further deliberations on the project.
Huawei’s smart village project aims to showcase the impact of digital infrastructure in rural areas by providing smart technology, transparent information, and user-friendly tools to address villagers' challenges and enhance development.
Sooma Mukyala Fouziya, public relations manager of Huawei technologies Uganda, said the project will contribute to the PDM by promoting digital transformation and sustainable growth through ICT in the country.
Huawei Smart PV has been instrumental in several prominent projects, including the Abuja Steel PV plant by Paras Energy, a Nigerian solar farm supplying green power to the steel industry, and the in the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia. This grid boasts a capacity of 400 MW PV plus 1300 MWh BESS and is entirely powered by renewable energy.
The President has also shown interest in Huawei’s "One Network One Cloud" initiative, requesting the team to develop a detailed proposal for further discussions.
In the past two decades, Huawei has solidified its footprint in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions. On June 28, 2024, the company announced plans to train an additional 150,000 talents in sub-Saharan Africa over the next three years. Its new cloud partnership with Telecom Egypt aims to enhance its reputation as a company dedicated to meeting the region's evolving market demands.
