MTN Group and Huawei signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 27 February at MWC Barcelona 2023 to strengthen strategic cooperation in the field of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG).

Figure 1: MTN Group and Huawei ESG MoU Signing Ceremony

During a summit held by the two parties at MWC Barcelona, the MoU is aligned with MTN’s business strategy Ambition 2025 and Huawei’s Corporate Sustainability Development (CSD) strategy, including its TECH4ALL initiative.
MTN Group Chief Operating Officer Jens Schulte-Bockum said: "We feel that everybody deserves to be connected to the benefits of the modern world, and we can only achieve that if we go deep into the rural areas of our countries. That is at the core of our ambition as a company. I know that you are passionate about driving this as well. Let's innovate together, and let's stay strong together."

"We believe that digital technology will become an important force driving social development and making the world more inclusive and sustainable." said Guo Ping, Chairman of the Huawei Supervisory Board.

In the area of digital skills training, the Huawei DigiTruck project provides free training in digital skills for those in need, including those in rural communities, the elderly, the unemployed, and girls and women. Converted from a used shipping container mounted on a truck, DigiTruck is a solar-powered mobile classroom equipped with laptops, smartphones and 4G connectivity.

Another project in the digital skills training area is Huawei ICT Academy. It trains university students in ICT skills such as 5G, cloud computing, and AI. There are 1,900 Huawei ICT Academies in 110 countries, serving around 150,000 students a year.

MTN’s Skills Academy seeks to enhance the link between digital skills training and job market requirements to benefit producers, consumers, and innovators of digital technologies. The partnership seeks to accelerate efforts to reach even more rural and remote communities and to broaden the portfolio of available digital skills training.

With a significant portion of Africa’s population living in rural areas, MTN is committed to expanding its network to underserved communities and has set a target of 95% rural broadband coverage by 2025. MTN's partnership with Huawei gets the company closer to its goal. The company intends to expand the number of collaborations and the types of partnership models it has in place.

MTN and Huawei are collaborating on deploying RuralStar, an affordable connectivity solution for providing online access to remote and rural communities. The solution overcomes traditional barriers that make network connectivity in such scenarios unviable for carriers and will extend collaboration between the partners, following in the footsteps of the completion of the world's first RuralStar proof-of-concept in Ghana in 2017.

In terms of reducing carbon emissions, Huawei will support MTN's commitment to minimize its impact on the planet and achieve net zero by 2040. The partners will work on decarbonizing the operator's telecommunications infrastructure, spanning Radio Access Network (RAN) sites, transport networks, storage, and data centers. This achievement of network decarbonization will be done via a mix of energy efficiency technologies and application of innovative green solutions.

MWC Barcelona 2023 runs from February 27 to March 2 in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei showcases its products and solutions at stand 1H50 in Fira Gran Via Hall 1. Together with global operators, industry professionals, and opinion leaders, we dive into topics such as 5G business success, 5.5G opportunities, green development, digital transformation, and our vision of using the GUIDE business blueprint to lay the foundation for 5.5G and build on the success of 5G for even greater prosperity. For more information, please visit: https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwc2023

This content is sponsored by Huawei.