Cheer as Huawei opens expanded Southern Africa regional training center – KBC

The government is seeking more private partnerships to increase the ICT skills set among students in higher learning institutions.

ICT Principal Secretary Dr. Jerome Ochieng disclosed this during the launch of Huawei Southern Africa Regional Training Center. The center has been earmarked to admit 1,200 trainees each year.

Dr. Ochieng says the government is keen on sealing more public-private partnerships to strengthen the ICT sector through training to create a skilled workforce that can support and sustain a digital economy.

“Our objective as a country is to become a regional hub for skilling. I challenged my colleagues at the University we should focus on how to train our people for the next generation of services that we require,” Jerome said

Huawei says it is seeking to collaborate with institutions of higher learning across the country to equip learners with ICT skills.

The Company’s Vice president of the Southern Africa region Dean Xuepeng said the Chinese telecommunications company has leveraged on partnerships to boost digital literacy in African countries.

“In future, Huawei will keep on working with Kenya Government and education institutions to establish an open, healthy and sustainable ICT tailored ecosystem in Kenya.” He said

Integrating artificial intelligence training in the higher education curriculum has been backed to make Kenya a regional ICT hub. Recently, there have been heightened calls for the operationalization of the Data Protection Act so as to make Kenya more attractive to investors.

The ICT PS acknowledged that the greatest concern facing the country at the moment, just like others globally is the cyber threat. He said the only way to deal with cyber threats is to understand the tools and devices in use.

“The training that will be provided at the center provides us with that opportunity and that way we will have the capacity to deal with them.” He said

His Higher Education counterpart Amb. Simon Nabukwesi acknowledged the gesture by Huawei saying the center will support the growth of Kenya’s talent ecosystem.

“We need to invest in talent locally and treat talent as the industry’s most important resource,” He said

On her part, Director of UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa Anne Therese Ndong said the fourth industrial revolution is all about what technology can do to bring about development in the world.

According to Ndong, Huawei is aiding in opening up of space for Africa’s quantum leap in all spheres of development, be it education, communication, or agriculture amongst others.

“This partnership with Huawei is one to be celebrated essentially because they know that gone are the days where you can only come and pour in knowledge and share what you know without really leaving your footprints.” She said

Huawei launched the Eastern Africa Training Center back in 2008. Over 7,200 people have received training including operators, govt officials, industry partners and students from across the region, contributing significantly to building the ICT ecosystem.