The telecommunication industry has always been on the cusp of change and 2022 has been a year that’s amplified that position. It is ever-evolving just as every aspect of the way humans communicate is, and that usually comes with some challenges.

Some of the top ones include 5G, changes from traditional services, the internet of things (IoT), and the rise of the conscious customer. The need to address them to find solutions is among the sparks of the idea of NETIS Technology Day.

Organised by NETIS Rwanda on November 18, the event gathered local and international key players in the telecommunication and energy industries to discuss new trends, share experiences and develop collaborations.

NETIS Rwanda is a subsidiary of the NETIS group, a global leader in the telecommunication industry with over 14 years of experience in the design and development of high-performance network communications solutions.

So far, the group services various markets in 15 countries and has previously laid out plans for expansion. In Rwanda, it has been in operation for the past three years proposing services in Fiber deployment, maintenance of networks among others to main actors in country.

The first edition of NETIS Technology Day gathered players from the government, academia and the private sector, all concerned with the works being done in the aforementioned sectors.

Talking about their developments, Malory Baudry, CEO at NETIS Rwanda Ltd mentioned that they have created the University of Netis called UNINET as a department part of Netis Group to help them share their experience internally with their own staff but also externally through different Memorandum of Understandings and partnerships they have built with local universities, including IPRC Gishari.

"Through the university, we give back the knowledge and the know-how that we have and new technologies that we use on a daily basis to the students to make sure that they are ready to work for us or with us,” he said.

Baudry also highlighted that NETIS values rely on three pillars: education, equality and sustainability, declaring that the environment they work in needs players to have that mindset regarding sustainability.

"We cannot keep doing business as we have been doing it many decades ago for it is impacting the climate,” he said. "We need to come up with new ideas and new solutions to be able to accompany those new trends. NETIS is bringing new solutions such as green energy; DC power generator working with Hydrogen and other Smart Power solutions that we are developing in the country. We carry on these new trends and make sure that all the actors (public and private) can keep in mind that sustainability and reducing the impact on the environment while doing business is mandatory.”

Talking about the role NETIS is playing in the 5G roll out, Baudry mentioned that the firm is an enabler to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), tower companies and other companies that are big players in the telecom sector, adding that it has the technical know-how and skilled staff, including some who have followed training in Nigeria for 5G deployment.

"We have people coming from Nigeria or Kenya to Rwanda to train the Rwandan staff. That helps to bring along highest standards to our operations and make our clients satisfied,” he said.

Talking about how they comply with the equality pillar, he said the company’s female ratio is 40 per cent but it aims to hit 50 per cent, given that they keep encouraging women to enrol in the sectors they cover, giving them opportunities.

Richard Nasasira, Principal of IPRC Kitabi highlighted that the work that NETIS does, the modern technologies the firm use as well as those it plans to deploy in the future align with Rwanda Polytechnic’s mandate that reflects preparing Rwandans by empowering them with knowledge and capacity to use those technologies and even create advanced ones, hence staying competent on the local and international labour market.

"NETIS Technology Day helped us to know what is needed; to understand what the industry needs and compare that with the capacity our students can have, thus evaluating ourselves to see if we will provide good candidates who can compete well in the labour market,” he said.

"We also received new information about different firms working in the telecommunication sector; what they do and how they differ. That helped us to know the partners we can work with so that our students can know where to do their internships, find jobs or acquire knowledge to create their own.”

Nasasira also mentioned that they seek to create partnerships with NETIS in different works in the telecommunication and energy fields benefitting both students and staff.

NETIS Technology Day will take place annually in different countries where NETIS in operating and especially in RWANDA.