Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 24 | Page 12

NEWS CIO Power Summit to be in held in South Africa J ohannesburg is to host Sub-Saharan Africa’s CIO Power Summit on February 12, which will bring together the senior IT decision makers from the IPP, PPP and National Power communities across the region to focus on Information Technology within the Power Sector. Power generation networks have become much more complex in recent years, thanks mainly to the rise in renewable energy power generation and the growing number of small, distributed power producers. Demand for power is also increasing in all African countries, yet grid infrastructure is often old and incapable of supporting additional capacity. Equipment is both difficult and costly to maintain, but tighter regulations are driving the industry to be more efficient and cleaner than ever. The CIO Power Summit will cover all the major topics that are hot in the industry. From analytics to IoT, connectivity to cybersecurity, the event aims keep up-to- date with Digital Transformation and a place for end users to meet with technology companies who are developing tomorrows technologies today. Representatives from national power companies, independent power producers and solution providers will all be in attendance, including City Power CIO Audrey Mochela, Tebogo Makhwelo, Senior Manager, IT Services for Eskom and ZESCO Director of Generation Fidelis Mubiana. For more information, visit ciopowerafrica.com. The CIO Power Summit will be held in Johannesburg on February 12 ////////////////// Huawei celebrates presence of 20 years in Sub-Saharan Africa H uawei has celebrated 20 years in Africa. In 1998, the telecoms giant sent a team from China to set up its business in Africa and the continent was among the first few locations Huawei chose as it started to expand. Reflecting on the company’s remarkable growth journey in the region, Huawei Southern Africa President Li Peng said that the firm had witnessed and contributed to the amazing changes and progress that have revolutionised the way people connect, learn and entertain. To honour its outstanding contribution to ICT, Dr. Siyabonga Cwele, South Africa’s Minister for Telecommunications and Postal Services, presented an Award of Excellence to Huawei South Africa. Dr. Cwele said: “Huawei has grown to be one of the biggest technology companies today. “We are inspired by the fact that it started out as an SMME.” Huawei has operated in Sub-Saharan Africa for 20 years “Huawei is dedicated to innovating around the needs of our customers and continuously pushing the boundaries of ICT to develop a diverse range of services tailored to local needs for the rapid growth of the telecom industry and realisation of national development strategies,” said Peng. “We are committed to leapfrog the process of building a better-connected Africa.” 12 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com