Technology giant, Huawei was last week in Abuja during this year’s Nigeria event, given an award for driving the digital economy among other private sector companies in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry.
While awarding Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, NITDA commended and recognized the organization stating that “Huawei established in Nigeria since 1999, has made progressive achievements and contribution to the significant development of ICT in Nigeria through collaboration with the great Nigerian government and efforts of industry players. In the past twenty years, Huawei has been working with operators and other partners in building backbone networks spanning over 8000km, connecting 36 states and FCT, and developed over 24000 mobile base stations, covering half of the country’s population.”
A management representative for the company in a goodwill message at the E-Nigeria 2019 conference said “Nigeria has embarked on a journey to reposition itself as the heartbeat and reference point in Africa and Huawei is committed to being a part of this journey to boost availability, accessibility and affordability of ICT services to turn digital inclusion to social and economic inclusion. Thank you!”
The Deputy Managing Director and Head of Public Relations, Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, Kelvin Yangyang noted that to effectively achieve a digital Nigeria, capacity building of Nigerians in ICT cannot be left out. He stated that “Huawei has been investing strongly in digital skills in Nigeria. Huawei has upskilled more than 20,000 ICT professionals in the industry in the last 20 years.
Huawei Trained 2000 Nigerian youths in core ICT skills and empowered 1000 civil servants in 2019 under the ICT for Change partnership with the Federal Government. Besides the ICT industry, Huawei is working with more than 60 Nigeria universities in Nigeria to establish the Huawei Authorized Information and Network Academy, providing the industrial recognized ICT certification including networks, clouding computing and big data.”
The 2-day E-Nigeria Conference, which was hosted by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under the guidance of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and in collaboration with public and the private sector as well as Non-Governmental Organizations and the academia, focused on the digital transformation as a tool for achieving a productive national economy.
Discussions at the conference centered on creating new job opportunities and economic development through technological innovation, harnessing indigenous innovation and creativity for poverty reduction in Nigeria.
The first day of the E-Nigeria 2019 conference was graced by the presence of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, who gave the opening ceremony address on Nigerian Digital Economy and unveiled a strategy document aimed to galvanize the nation’s digital economy.
Some of the highlights of the President’s speech during the conference focused on the need for government offices and agencies to utilize digital innovation to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in its service delivery, and for creating seamless synergy across the board.
President Buhari, GCFR, was noted to have said “Our recent introduction of the Nigerian E-government Masterplan will further consolidate our successes to date and increase interoperability among the different Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government”
He added stating that “A key requirement of the e-government Master plan is for all government institutions to create a Digital Transformation Technical Working Group that will work with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to ensure seamless and coordinated implementation of projects, programs and policies…Furthermore, the Nigerian e-Government Interoperability Framework, the Enterprise Architecture and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation are in place and all Ministries, Departments and Agencies are expected to comply with these policies,’’
Other dignitaries at the event were the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; Director-General, NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi; the Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Representative of the Senate Speaker, Honourable Lado, among other honorable guests.