Connection issues: a study on the limitations of knowledge transfer in Huawei’s African training centres

ABSTRACT

Huawei has built several training centres across Africa. This study establishes the purpose of these centres in Kenya and Nigeria and presents original data on their success based on their objectives. Fieldwork was conducted in 2018 and follow-up interviews continued by phone until 2021. I find that Huawe’s investments offer no significant opportunities for knowledge transfers that could foster technological or industrial upgrading in Kenya or Nigeria’s telecommunications sectors. In part, this is due to domestic obstacles in the host countries. But, like other international equipment vendors operating in the region, knowledge transfers are also hindered by the limited scope of Huawei’s investments and the boundaries on the knowledge it is willing to share with domestic employees. I conclude that Kenya and Nigeria’s governments may underestimate the leverage they have over international equipment vendors to induce more meaningful opportunities for knowledge transfer.

KEYWORDS:

• Training centres
• knowledge transfer
• Huawei
• telecommunications
• China-Africa

Acknowledgments

This research was made possible by the generous support of the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS. This paper is a revision of a working paper that was published by CARI in March 2020. I would especially like to thank Yoon Jung Park for her patient and thorough feedback on several versions of this paper. All errors are my own, but I also thank Tang Xiaoyang, Ho-Fung Hung, and the anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful suggestions to improve this paper. Thanks also go to Deborah Brautigam, Marie Foster, Janet Eom, June Sun, Elor Nkereuwem, Chelsey Buurman, and Charlie Harriman, for supporting me in launching this project and the many people who gave their time to be interviewed. Most importantly I thank my wife, Anne Reckitt, who joined me during fieldwork in Nairobi and who makes everything better than it could otherwise be.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Author’s translation of: ‘对中国友好且能够说得上话的非洲人’‘在非洲说得上话的中国人’, sourced from: (刘 (Liu) 2015, 250).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department for International Development, UK Government.

Notes on contributors

Henry Tugendhat

Henry Tugendhat is a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, working on Chinese telecommunications in Africa. He received his Master's from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and his Bachelor's from the University of Leeds.