Huawei hosted the Eco-Connect South Africa 2022 in Johannesburg at the Sandton Convention Centre on 8 July. ICT industry leaders, IT experts, and Huawei partners and customers gathered to share their insights and decipher global trends that are changing the ICT landscape.

This year’s theme for Huawei Eco-Connect South Africa was “Digitise, Transform the Present”. Leading South African IT company Gijima received two recognition awards at the event, IT Partner of the Year for a consecutive year and IT Service Partner of the Year. This achievement further cements Gijima at the forefront of ICT innovation in South Africa.

Gijima previously received the IT Partner of the Year award in 2021 and in 2019 in recognition of its ability to jointly develop and make breakthroughs in key businesses with Huawei in the ICT Industry.

Gijima chairman and founder Robert Gumede shared a testimonial at the event. “Our digital transformation journey plans as Gijima have been made possible by working with a partner like Huawei. As the world changes, we are always one step ahead in finding innovative solutions to make a meaningful impact for our clients and South Africans.”

The partnership between Gijima and Huawei started almost 20 years ago, collaborating on various public sector projects. Gijima was the first black-owned business to partner with the global tech giant. The collaboration has since evolved, with Gijima partnering with Huawei to enhance ICT innovation in South Africa — including in cloud-based solutions.

Sylvester Samuel, MD of Gijima Cloud, Infrastructure and Security Solutions (GCISS), said: “Gijima is determined to unearth ICT innovation in South Africa, and our partnership with Huawei is instrumental in helping us to achieve this objective. We want to build a long-lasting partnership with Huawei that will enable both parties to grow their market share in the South African ICT industry. Receiving recognition from Huawei reflects the solid collaboration between the two companies over the years.”

Gijima has delivered significant value by leveraging Huawei storage and server technology in its multi-tenanted Gijima One Private Cloud, effectively delivering services to many clients. Gijima has also successfully implemented turnkey on-premises private cloud solutions for several clients, leveraging Huawei cloud technologies.

Huawei’s network technologies have similarly connected many of Gijima’s clients and enabled Wi-Fi 6 connectivity for Gijima’s largest campus.

Huawei enterprise partner and alliance development director Frenndy Wang said: “Gijima is Huawei’s strategic partner and we’ve grown together over the past years making a meaningful impact in South Africa’s ICT industry. We are glad that Gijima received the IT Partner of the Year and IT Service Partner of the Year, proving the growing partnership, and we’re looking forward to doing more business with Gijima, which continues to add value for our South African customers.”

As one of the top, 100% black-owned ICT businesses in South Africa, Gijima prides itself in employing about 1 600 people and bringing innovative cloud solutions, network services, cybersecurity and ICT-managed services to South Africans.