Twelve Nigerian students from the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the University of Port Harcourt have qualified for the Huawei global information and communication technology competition following an excellent performance in the cloud and network examination at the just concluded Huawei’s ‘Sub-Saharan Africa Region ICT Competition’ finals.
The competition, which generally covers examination on the latest ICT technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, mobile networks, and big data is believed to be the biggest of its kind in Africa featuring 123 students from 13 countries, divided into 41 teams (28 network track and 13 cloud track teams).
At the sub-Saharan regional finals, the students competed for 18 prizes and 12 admission tickets for the final in October 2020, which will attract more than 300 other students from 66 countries across the globe.
Team Nigeria had 15 students divided into five teams and the students had a great performance which guaranteed four of the teams’ tickets to the global ICT competition.
Two teams emerged first position and third position, respectively in the cloud examination, while two other teams of the Nigerian students emerged second position in the network examination.
Due to the pandemic, the Huawei ICT sub-Saharan regional competition was held virtually. The Nigerian students participated from the Huawei Technologies Nigeria offices in Abuja and Lagos.
The Huawei ICT competition established to foster ICT learning in Africa and bridge the gap between theoretical study and practical experience typically comprises a national preliminary contest, a regional semi-final, and a global final.
Following a successful run at the national finals of the competition which was held on December 10, 2019, and had over 23,000 Nigerian students in the contest, 15 students were selected to represent Nigeria at the ‘Sub-Saharan Africa Region ICT Competition’ finals on September 10 and 11, 2020.
Melissa Chen, Director, Huawei Nigeria Enterprise D&S Department, said, “The competition-related training has helped over 300 students receive job offers. In Nigeria alone, over 3,000 Nigerian students trained by Huawei have successfully passed the Huawei professional certification exams. Huawei hopes to skill up more than 700,000 ICT professionals by 2023.
“The aim is to bridge the ICT talent gap, advance the digital transformation of industries, and bring digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world.”
Kenneth Igwe, Huawei Channel Training Manager (for ICT Talent Ecosystem Development in Nigeria) explained, “Prior to the ICT competition, Huawei Technologies Nigeria took time to train nine of the 15 students who were also given internship opportunities with the company in Abuja and Lagos.
“Meanwhile, all the students had also been trained since January for this competition and many of them already acquired HCIA, HCIP and HCIP which are globally recognised certifications in various Huawei technology Courses.”
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