Over 100 policymakers and regulators across 19 African countries have benefited from a virtual workshop on emerging technologies over a three-month period, which was organized by Ericsson and Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) as part of an effort to enhance the critical digital skills of senior public sector officials.
The programme is aimed at enhancing the digital skills of a target group of senior officials from ministries and regulatory authorities, in charge of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) by providing access to Ericsson’s global skills program – Ericsson Educate.
“The essence of organizing the programme is to promote and boost digital transformation across Africa through education and capacity building,” said Fida Kibbi, Vice President and Head of Marketing, Communications and Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility at Ericsson Middle East and Africa.
He added that Ericsson is happy to see the fruitful outcome of the collaboration with Smart Africa Digital Academy within such a short time period. Equipped with a deeper understanding on how existing and emerging technologies work and how these can be best used, the policymakers and regulators can enable the digital transformation of the continent by creating the best conditions for citizens, consumers, and businesses.”
In addition to access to self-learning digital skills content, the Ericsson Educate program helped deliver a series of webinars led by 27 Subject Matter Experts from Ericsson. The collaboration ran from November 2022 to January 2023.
The specially curated virtual workshops covered topics related to emerging technologies parts of the Fourth Industry Revolution (4IR) such as 5G networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), Network Security, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML).
Commenting also, Thelma Quaye, Director of Infrastructure, Skills and Empowerment at Smart Africa highlighted:” The Fourth Industrial Revolution is fueled by innovation and knowledge. Technology offers a great opportunity for Africa to embrace new opportunities to boost digital transformation and contribute to the global economy. We are glad to see our participants benefitting greatly from our collaboration with Ericsson, and we are looking forward to witnessing the positive advancements that will be brought about.”