With Africa’s data centre decade in full swing, Chinese multinational Huawei said it will step up its data centre investments across the continent.

The deployments are set to be done through partnerships with several countries similar to the company’s latest project in Senegal.

According to Philippe Wang, Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications for Huawei in North Africa: “We contribute to the creation of data centres and the training of human resources.”

He told Africa News: “We are the partner to build the data centre, to provide the equipment, the platform and to improve the connection with the applications of the different partners.

“On our side, we are also involved in training in this field. And we consider that it is the hardware and software that will make all the strategies work in this continent.”

Huawei has today relationships with 25 countries across Africa and has over the last seven years driven the construction of several data centres especially in Mozambique, Senegal, and South Africa.

“I think that this is a very important subject. It allows sub-Saharan countries to start having their own infrastructure to manage their own data,” Wang added.

The Chinese business was quick to move into the continent as many Western governments banned its services – and services from other Chinese operators – when Washington-Beijing relations soared.