Huawei to establish ICT academy in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University

Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited as part of its commitment to further contribute to driving ICT skills and capacity building in Nigeria has moved to establish its Huawei ICT Academy program in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU). The agreement was sealed by the MoU signing event between the company and the university at the ATBU Senate Building.

The Vice-Chancellor in his remarks appreciated Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited for enlisting the university as part of this initiative. He praised the company for its contribution to technology innovation and advancement globally. He also mentioned 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.

Speaking at the MoU signing event, Mr. Kenneth Igwe, Huawei Channel Training Manager (ICT Talent Ecosystem Development) stated that Huawei established its ICT Academy program in Nigeria in 2017 to help students quickly align with industry requirements by mastering the latest ICT technologies while they are still on campus given that 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.

To further improve the hands-on experience for the students, Huawei offered to build an ICT lab with state of the art ICT equipment for the university. Ms Melissa Chen Yefang, Huawei Enterprise Service & Delivery Director in Nigeria said “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,” she added.

Ms Melissa also mentioned the company’s 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.
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.

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.”