Nokia Enterprise, a division of Nokia Corporation, the Finnish telecommunications and technology giant, faced its own set of challenges in 2020 due to COVID-19, but Kamal Ballout, Head of Nokia Enterprise MEA, says that it has remained resilient and will have significant opportunities next year.

Nokia Enterprise builds technological solutions for clients including oil and gas companies, the mining industry and the transport industry. The division grew “quite significantly” in 2020, Ballout said, and it is poised for a good year in 2021 as local critical industries embrace technology to remain competitive on the world stage.

In 2021, in addition to the UAE, the company will be focusing on opportunities for oil and gas in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. “We see significant opportunities in Egypt, with new cities being built and new digital platforms associated with these new cities,” Ballout added. “We see significant mining opportunities in South Africa and other southern African countries as well. We are seeing countries like Morocco and Algeria embracing the [digital] transformation too.”

Critical industries are undergoing digital transformation, Ballout said, which will see them embrace innovations such as digital twin technology, which enables the automation of interconnected assets to create an operation less dependent on human intervention.

“I am fully anticipating significant spending by Ministry of Interior for public safety and the Ministry of Defence for border control,” he added. 

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) region presents diverse opportunities for technological companies because investment in technology only began to take place recently. Whereas Europe and North America has had incremental investments that resulted in the accumulation of legacy systems, the relative lack of investment in the MEA region is “a boon for disruption [and] a boon for leapfrogging,” as Ballout said.

While all industries have been impacted by COVID-19, Nokia Enterprise has weathered it differently because of its essential industry focus. “We are focused on mission-critical industries: mining, oil and gas, power utilities, smart cities,” Ballout said. “What these industries have in common is […] they have to operate; they are a key part of the safety of citizens and the wellbeing of the economy.”

There will be expansion to the Enterprise team in the region going forward, and this means investment in research programmes and partnerships with regional universities, he said.

(Reporting by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)

(imogen.lillywhite@refinitiv.com)

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