Six Nigerian students, all from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria will alongside other students from Tanzania, Kenya and Angola represent Africa on the global stage to compete for the world ICT title in Huawei Technologies’ flagship ICT development program set to hold in China, May 2019.
The students, Abdulqadir Babagana Musa, Muhammad Mustafa Maihaja, Fahad Danladi, Shuaibu Abbas Usman, Kamaludeen Umar and Abdulqudus Adebayo Temidayo ranked number one leading to a dominant score of 790.4, followed by Tanzania with 745.6, then Kenya with 737 and Angola with 700.8 in the regional competition finals consisted of 14 teams (with 42 students) from 11 countries in Africa.
They participated in theory and practical examinations on cloud computing, artificial intelligence, mobile networks and big data to emerge winners of the Huawei ICT national competition, which involved a participation of 13, 600 students from 30 universities across Nigeria before proceeding to represent Nigeria at the just-concluded Sub-Saharan regional finals held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
With this feat, apart from travelling to China for the global finals, which will see 40 teams from around the world compete for the championship title, the 6 Nigerian students have also been offered job opportunities in Huawei Technologies Co. Nigeria Limited to further improve their skills and experience.
Huawei had launched the ICT competition in Nigeria in partnership with local universities last year bearing in mind Nigeria was playing a key role in representing Africa on the global scale of ICT knowledge and capacity building.
The global ICT company believes that Nigeria is at the heart of development, especially with its growing youth population and rapid advancement in innovation and technology, where the building of technology hub is getting global attraction.
According to Huawei, it is using this competition to improve comprehensive capabilities of students, transfer cutting-edge technology information and explore the business requirement of the industry. Participating students cut across nationalities such as China, U.K, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania, Angola, Kenya, Singapore, Mexico, India, etc.
“Huawei understands the value of a good talent ecosystem which is the foundation for a smart future. This ICT Competition is part of our innovative initiatives to support that and promote ICT skills. We believe that this event will inspire more students’ interest in ICT learning in Africa; it provides them with a world-class stage to showcase themselves and consolidate the vital ICT needed for Africa’s development,” said Mr. Xue Man, Vice President of Huawei Technologies.
Xue Man noted that Huawei’s vision is to build a healthy ICT talent ecosystem and its Huawei ICT Academy program is one of the important fundamental parts. “Until now, there are more than 400 universities and colleges around the world, which have joined the Huawei ICT Academy. Huawei trains more than 12,000 students per year, bringing the latest technology to its campus and transferring talents to the ICT industry,” he added.
Meanwhile, the representative of the Nigerian students’ team, Muhammad Mustafa Maihaja has dedicated the achievement to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) and Huawei Technologies.
He stated the competition present a great opportunity to learn new cutting-edge technology. “The exposure is great and this is a dream come true for us. We have worked really hard and are glad on how far we have come. We are aiming to use this opportunity to announce the prominence of our institution, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), and Nigeria at large and to prove that we are a hard stone to conquer,” he said.
Maihaja assured that the team can bring the global award to Nigeria from.