Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited has concluded plans to establish its ICT Academy in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi.
Ms Melissa Chen Yefang, Huawei Enterprise Service & Delivery Director in Nigeria, disclosed this while signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the company and the university at the ATBU Senate Building.
The programme, according to the global ICT company, was part of its commitment to further boost ICT skills and capacity building in Nigeria, especially among youths.
The MoU would enable Huawei build an ICT lab with state of the art ICT equipment for the university to further improve hands-on experience for the students.
“Huawei through this partnership will be donating Lab equipment to ATBU to help the students gain practical knowledge and boost the reputation of ATBU.
“Huawei’s vision is for Nigeria to become a major ICT hub in Africa with some of the best talents and to become one of the most respected countries for rapid ICT advancement in the whole world.
“We hope to achieve this by further increasing the density of trained skilled ICT talents in Nigeria.” Ms Melissa said.
She pointed out that the ICT company plans to further expose the students to work experience in Huawei and its partners’ companies.
“We believe that this new partnership with ATBU will create opportunities for excellent students from ATBU, who have gone through the ICT academy and are certified to get Internship, NYSC and Job Placement in Huawei and Huawei Partner companies also.” She said.
It would be recalled that Huawei had previously held job fairs in some Nigerian universities which were aimed at selecting excellent students through two evaluation process, test and interview for employment in Huawei and its partners’ companies.
Also speaking, Mr. Kenneth Igwe, Huawei Channel Training Manager (ICT Talent Ecosystem Development) narrated how Huawei established its ICT Academy programme in Nigeria in 2017 to help students quickly align with industry requirements by mastering the latest ICT technologies while they are still on campus, saying students are the primary source of talent.
He emphasized that “the training offers an internationally recognized certification which equips the students with global standard skills that qualifies them for ICT jobs anywhere in the world.”
“Huawei has collaborated with more than 75 universities and colleges in Nigeria to build ICT academies, which provide training for more than 3,000 students annually and continuously supply excellent candidates to Huawei’s ICT talent eco-system. Through the Huawei Authorized Information and Network Academy (HAINA), more than 10,000 Nigerian students have so far been trained,” he added.
In his remark, the Vice Chancellor of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Professor Mohammed Abdulazeez, lauded Huawei for enlisting the university in its ICT programmes as well as its contribution to technology innovation and advancement globally.
He noted the great experience and exposure shared by two ATBU students who had been selected by Huawei for specialised ICT skills training in China in 2019 under its Seeds for the Future programme.
While speaking on Huawei’s contribution to ICT capacity development in Nigeria, Mr. Emmanuel Adereti, Huawei Media and Communications Manager in Nigeria, emphasized that “Huawei has been operating in Nigeria for 20 years now and so far the company has been heavily investing in capacity building and knowledge transfer.
“Asides from other training initiatives by the company, Huawei has upskilled more than 20,000 Nigerian ICT engineers who have become the main workforce for network management across the country.”
