Nigeria driving investment in education through ICT, says FG

• Huawei launches 2019 ICT Global Competition
Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Isa Pantami, says the federal government will continue to leverage on technology to foster sustainable national development.

He stated this at an award ceremony in Abuja to celebrate the outstanding performance of Nigerian students at the Global Final of the Huawei ICT Competition held recently at the company’s headquarters in Dongguan, China.

In a communiqué made available to The Guardian yesterday, he assured that the country, at the heart of its development, was playing a key role in representing Africa on the global scale of ICT knowledge and capacity building.

A team of three Nigerian students, in May, emerged among the top three in the Global Final of the Huawei ICT Competition, with 49 other teams and a total of 147 students representing 30 countries racing for the global trophy.

Pantami, however, commended Huawei for its commitment in promoting ICT development in Nigeria, adding that the initiative aligned with one of the agency’s seven pillars of capacity building and in line with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Zhou Pingjian, noted that Nigeria had experienced exponential growth in the past 20 years since Huawei came into the country.

“There were 27,000 mobile phone owners in Nigeria 20 years ago. Today, that number soars to 170 million. Twenty years ago, one minute talk in Nigeria cost $1 dollar; today, that same call costs two cents. Twenty years ago, Huawei began knocking the door of Nigeria; today, Huawei grows with Nigeria as the most reliable business partner,” he said.

Managing Director of Huawei Technologies, Nigeria (Abuja Office), Tank Li, had said the company’s vision in Nigeria was to create an ICT talent ecosystem that would form the foundation in the digitalisation plan for the nearest future.

“This year marks the 20th of Huawei in Nigeria. Within this period, Huawei has made progressive achievements through collaboration with the public and private sectors in Nigeria.

“Huawei, through its many corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, had strived to touch many lives in Nigeria, especially the education sector, including the Seeds for the Future Programme, where we send 10 students to China for two weeks, all expenses paid by Huawei, which we have done for the past two years.”

“Huawei will continue to invest in this collaboration with universities. This number is expected to increase greatly within the coming months, and continuously supply excellent candidates to Huawei’s ICT talent eco-system,” he added.