BY EMEKA AGINAM

AS part of its technology transfer commitment in providing more training opportunities to Nigeria in 2014, the Vice- President of the leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, Huawei West Africa, Mr. Hover Gao has disclosed that the company in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology, FMCT haS committed about N315 million in ICT training in Nigeria.

It would be recalled that Huawei was the first ICT solutions provider to establish an ICT training center in Abuja back in 2004 and since then the training center has provided more than 5,000 opportunities to ICT practitioners.

Before now, Huawei on the 4th of November 2013 had announced a partnership with the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology, FMCT to provide 1,000 Nigerian girls with basic ICT training, which is part of the global campaign Tech Needs Girls developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Gao who stated this in a press conference at the weekend said that this global sensitization campaign has raged for over 20 years and has produced tangible results in many countries including Nigeria.

With this, he further disclosed that , Marco Obiso, the Cyber security Coordinator of International Telecom Union (ITU), in November, 2013 had visited Huawei Nigeria to evaluate this program and to share the experience with ITU members globally.

Accordingly, the investment on this program, he said form Huawei worth N215 million Naira and additional N100 million from the FMCT..

The training program flagged off in November 2013 between the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology and Huawei, according to Gao has already provided 424 training opportunities for the Nigerian girls during 9 sessions until now.

By the end of this program, he said hat 200 top participants out of the 1,000 girls will get further training for the attainment of a certification as Huawei Certified Datacom Associate (HCDA).
Top achievers with Huawei HCDA certification , according to him, will have the priority-access to Huawei Human resources pool to be employed by Huawei.

“All the participants will be recommended by Huawei to Huawei Channel partners such as operators, ICT solutions providers and ICT departments in enterprises. An awards ceremony will be organized this April as ITU has designated the 4th Thursday in April every year as a day set to celebrate and encourage girls to take up careers in ICT” he added.

To grow with Nigeria, the VP of Huawei West Africa said that the ICT company increased its investment in Nigeria year by year.
“Huawei is the first ICT solutions provider who invests millions of dollars to establish its regional network operation center in Lagos which is said to have the capability of maintaining all the Huawei networks in Africa.”