Now, on Friday 27th August 2021, the Huawei Uganda Managing director Gao Fei and the Minister of ICT and National Guidance Chris Barymonusi launched the Huawei ICT Talent development report showing progress of the company’s ICT education efforts in the country.

Research shows that people and organizations’ ability to access and use ICT services is more likely to drive economic development than ICT education and skills. This is due to the fact that access to ICT services will increase demand and create a vacuum for more talent to provide these services to digital consumers.

At the report launch event, Olinga John Peter stood out as the outstanding Huawei ICT Instructor of the year after training winners of the 2020 Huawei ICT Competition. The WInners progressed from Uganda’s universities through regional and global finals to WIN the 2020 competition.

While rewarding Olinga, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance lauded initiatives like the Huawei ICT Academy, Huawei ICT Competition, and Huawei Seeds for the future for helping Uganda’s vision 2040 and the 2014 National ICT Policy achievable since these initiatives involve skilling of young people which will help Uganda achieve socio-economic Development and be relevant in the new digital era.

The ICT minister revealed that Uganda wants to be the region’s top ICT-enabled country and to realise this, young people must have the skills, passion, determination, and support to develop and use their ICT skills to drive this country forward. He added that Government needs partners in the private sector like Huawei, not only in implementing technology solutions, but also in working together to build skills for the future workforce.

“Government has put digital upskilling a top priority and this is witnessed in the Vision 2040. Which is, Uganda shall develop and improve its ICT capacity, building efforts by adopting globally-benchmarked, industry-rated skills assessments, and training and certification standards. These efforts will be coupled with international industry collaboration in testing and certification standards,”

Dr. Chris Baryomusi – Minister of ICT and National Guidance

Furthermore, the ICT minister revealed that Uganda’s 2014 National ICT policy highlights strategies in human resource development including the inclusion of a comprehensive and regularly updated computer literacy module in the education curriculum using international benchmarks as a reference.

In Uganda, Huawei continues to play an active role in the country’s digital transformation processes through technological infrastructure and digital upskilling. This has been the case since 2007 when Huawei started its collaboration with the Ministry of ICT on launching the National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) project.

Launching the third edition of the competitions at Serena Hotel Kampala on Friday, Dr Muyingo lauded Huawei Technologies for working with the government of Uganda to promote the delivery of quality education through ICT.

“We partnered with Huawei for the Seeds for the future program and over the years we have always made it a point to play an active role in the implementation of the digital upskilling initiatives in schools and universities across the country,”

the Minister said. 

” The COVID19 Pandemic has presented the sector with profound challenges.  No one foresaw the coming of this pandemic and the crippling effect it would have on all sectors of the economy including Education.  Over 15 million learners have been left at home and we have been forced to rethink the delivery of Education for our learners. 

With the broad experience that Huawei has developed over the years, I am confident that this partnership can help us to find more innovative solutions to these challenges which we are facing.

I call upon you to begin exploring the possibilities for delivery of infrastructure that will bring our education sector up to speed with the dynamic changes and resulting challenges that have been presented by the 21st century,”

he added. 

Dr Muyingo further noted that as government they believe that the skills that are being imparted through programs such as the ICT Academy, ICT Competition and Seeds for the Future are relevant to our socio-economic development agenda.

“Government is committed to upscaling and mainstreaming ICT in the delivery of Education as a measure to facilitate continued learning during this lockdown. We have requested National Council for Higher Education to work with our universities and allow them to operate through Open Distance Education and Learning.  I request all of us here to come together, share ideas and make this innovation a success even for post lockdown learning.”

At the same function, the Ugandan students who emerged winners in last year’s global Huawei ICT Competition were officially rewarded. At regional and global level the Network team of Uganda took first position, beating over 34 countries and 107 teams. As a result, the Ugandan team emerged as number one in the 2020 ICT Competitions at global level.

“I thank Huawei for their commitment and look toward to even more partnerships of this kind (ICT Competition). I would like to also congratulate the students who represented Uganda last year at the ICT Competition and raised our flag high by taking first position globally. This shows that our education sector has not only improved but is now competitive globally and a force to be reckoned with,”Dr Muyingo added.

On his part,Mr Yang Chen Frank, the Huawei Technologies Southern Africa Regional Vice President thanked the Government of Uganda for putting a good and peaceful investment climate that has enabled the global ICT service provider exist in Uganda since 2001.

“More thanks to the Ministry of Education and ICT for their constant support which has enabled us achieve not only our vision of bringing digital to every person, home and organization but also train and upskill Ugandans,” Mr Chen asserted. 

He said under the condusive investment environment, Huawei has been able to make some achievements including training over  2000 Ugandan Youths, certifying hundreds through its 15 ICT academies as of today.

“This is the result of aligning our local strategy with national strategies-this is a very important principle that we stick to when it comes to business and skill and knowledge transfer.A big thank you to the Government of Uganda for creating an enabling environment for digital skill cultivation and ICT talent development as the future now depends on various ICT skills,”

Mr Chen said. 

“Huawei’s ICT talent cultivation strategy in Uganda is flourishing while being sustainable due to a unique “learn-show-apply” structure, which provides not only training but also a global stage level to show capabilities and various internships and job opportunities to apply their skills. So Building Uganda’s ICT talent pool requires government-industry-university partnerships and collaboration that benefit all and reinforce each other to enable even stronger programs in a virtuous cycle.”

The Event was attended by Third Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Lukia Isanga Nakaddama (3^rd left) who was the guest of honor.

The annual Huawei ICT Competition is a key piece of the ICT Academy Rocks Campaign. It targets university and college students worldwide, aiming to facilitate communication between schools, enterprises, and governments while building a robust talent ecosystem.

Through this competition, Huawei aims to challenge the students ICT knowledge as well as the practical and application skills, and ultimately, inspire innovation with the theme of “connection, glory, future”.

After six years of development, The Huawei ICT Competition has become one of the biggest event of its kind in Africa. The competition covers latest technologies such as cloud computing, AI, mobile networks, big data, that are pertinent to students’ competitiveness in the job market.

Over the years on the African region, Huawei has signed cooperation agreements with over 250 universities in 14 Sub-Saharan countries on establishing Huawei ICT academies. This cooperation has enabled more than 7,000 university students to obtain Huawei ICT certification, which makes them better candidates for ICT-related jobs. In Uganda, over 15 universities have signed which include, Makerere, Muni, MUBS, Soroti, Kabale, Kyambogo, Nkozi, Mbarara, KIU and IUIU. 

Last year, Huawei held its second ICT competition in Uganda and a global ICT company reached out to various universities where over 2500 students registered to take part.

And by the end of the highly competitive event, three University students representing Uganda; Shaffic Nyanzi and Emmanuel Kiguli from Muni and Doreen Nalwoga from Lira University emerged among the world’s best at the Global finals. This was the first time for Uganda to qualify for the global stage after taking top positiosn at the Africa region final.

The three Ugandan students’ achievement was attributed to Huawei Uganda’s continued recognition and efforts to build a competitive ICT talent pool among the young generation, who will be an indispensable accelerator for Uganda’s post-COVID-19 recovery and digitization.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared to the Tech Point Magazine team.

Shafiq Nyanzi, Emmanuel Kiguli from Muni University, and Doreen Nalwoga from Lira University shined among the world’s best at the 2020 round of the ICT Competition held virtually with participation from over 39countries with 103student teams.

This year, Huawei Uganda reached out to over 10 universities and registered over 2500 students to take part in the 2020 round of the competition with a country level grading system to level teams for the regional African round.

At regional level, over 3 Ugandan teams and 12 African teams qualified for the global round of the competition. At a global level, the teams faced stiff competition with participants from Asia, Latin America, East Europe, and the Middle East.

Despite being the newest contestants at the Global level of Huawei’s ICT Competition since 2017, African students have made stunning progress this year. In 2019, only five African teams made it to the global final and reaped only one-third prize, compared with 13 teams this year, winning a total of seven medals.

Doreen Nalwoga, a student of Lira University and one of a member of the winning team representing Uganda shared her experience of the competition from country level to regional level and finally winning at the Global round.

“This journey with Huawei came with benefits such as professional certification in the fields of interest, Huawei gave students the opportunity to learn skills which are recognized in the world of ICT. Huawei provided us with a platform to experience and practice on new, innovative, and cutting-edge technology to grow and develop ourselves.”

Doreen Nalwoga

In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, all training and competition activities were held online. Victorious students had a good reason to rejoice after 10 months of hard work and fierce competition from national screening contests, the regional final, to the global finals.

Historically, the past five years have attracted Huawei to sign co-operation agreements with over 250 universities in 14 Sub-Saharan countries to establish Huawei ICT academies and nurture rising ICT talent.

The cooperation has enabled more than 7,000 university students obtain Huawei ICT certifications making them better candidates for ICT-related jobs. In Uganda, 8 universities so far host the Huawei ICT academy including: Makerere, Muni, MUBS, Soroti, Kabale, Kyambogo, Nkozi, and Mbarara Universities.

Mr. Hou Tao, Global Vice President of Huawei, highlighted the impressive enthusiasm of the students, which is much needed to for Africa’s digital inclusion in the era when the gravity of workplace skills is shifting to office-less standards as he said.

 “As a private company serving the African market for over 20 years, Huawei has dedicated itself to and will always remain a trusted partner of governments and academia in building a competitive ICT talent pool, strengthening capacity building and increasing people’s digital competence,” said Mr. Hou.

In a nutshell, Huawei’s ICT Competition has continued to upskill students across Uganda by availing open certification paths and academies at local universities.

On a global scale, this year’s Huawei ICT Competition has attracted nearly 150,000 students from 2,000 universities in 82 countries. In Africa, teams from Uganda, Zambia, Kenya, Lesotho, and South Africa also made it to the global round.

With the theme “Connection, Glory, future” , The Huawei 2019-2020 global competition aims at providing a platfom for IT students to showcase their talent and abilities in solving real world ICT problems.

In Uganda, the Huawei competition attracted a total of 2500 students across the country where 100 qualified for the National exams that sieved 3 Makerere students Magola Kenneth, Okello Stephen & Mudulo Gerald as the best for the next regional level

The local competition comprised of participants from Makerere, Kyambogo, Mbarara, Kabale,MUBS,Lira, Gulu, UCU and Muni Universities. All competing students had access to Huawei network simulators and an online learning platform

The learning curve was divided into network and cloud paths, The network lane included routing & switching, security and wireless LAN courses, while the Cloud lane had Artificial Intelligence, storage, big data and cloud computing courses

According to the Huawei Uganda Human Resource Director, Mr. Liaoshuangquan, the competition is relevant to ICT students and professionals because of its comprehensive approach to skills development for employment, enhanced productivity and growth.

“The Huawei ICT Competition and Academy is a comprehensive approach of skills development for employment, enhanced productivity and growth. Training contents in this program has been aligned with skills requirements in the job market. That is why we re-dedicate ourselves to working even more closely with universities across the country to better equip students with the next generation of technologies and create the platform for the Ugandan students to demonstrate they are capable of maturing into world-class experts,”

Liaoshuangquan – Huawei Uganda Human Resource Director

Additionally, the top 11 finalists from the top 100 comeptitiros will be awarded with professional certificates and job opportunities at Huawei Uganda.

Hence, as Makerere’s Magola Kenneth, Okello Stephen & Mudulo Gerald head to the next level of competing on a global scale in SouthAfrica, the rest of the 89 finalists will be able to apply for the 2020/21 round through active Huawei academies in Kampala, Gulu, Soroti and Kabale

Similar to Cisco’s Netriders competition where our a member of our team is one of the notable wall of fame top talents under the CCENT category, Huawei’s approach is based on a full innovation and simulations model.

It is due to the fact that Huawei runs a certification path majorly affiliated to networks careers, that it brings to book successful innovators and top talents for a regional shakedown before a grand-global narration. With less of the icing, here are 2 things you need to know Huawei’s annual ICT competitions.

It is Based on Huawei’s Certification scheme and runs on 4 Units

Huawei’s Certification scheme is majorly a networking package that further blends to play Data and cloud computing. Hence the ICT competition is majorly run on Huawei’s certification path strides.

Cloud Computing, Networks, Artificial intelligence, and big data are the 4 Units on which Huawei’s 2nd ICT competition round will fully run with key focus to nurturing ICT talent from major Universities in Uganda and selected academies in Sub Saharan Africa through the same scheme.

The Competition is Open to Over 6000 Students in Uganda

In a presser shared by Hauwei Uganda, Over 6,000 students will benefit from its 2nd Competitions round selected from various Universities in the country. As a norm, the selected Universities must have a Huawei Academy affiliation to their ICT departments.

Among the already registered Universities, Makerere Univerity leads the pike as Kyambogo, KIU, Ndejje among others share the Uganda Academy route.

Luckily, University Students from other campuses can also join the competition league by enrolling to one of the supported academies without necessarily being members of that campus.

Spoiler Alert: The Overall Prizes are bigger than any other ICT competition scheme

Cisco runs its Netriders competition on a completely transparent forum, but it’s overall prizes only include a top 5 regional winners coverage and a trip to SanFrancisco for the best Podium finisher.

However, Huawei is offering much bigger prizes for both its country-based winners, regional and the grand global finalists. As a fact, finalists from Uganda will meet up with fellow finalists from other participating countries for a regional shakedown in SouthAfrica.

Regional Winners from the South Africa raffle will further progress to a global competition featuring fellow winners from all participating countries for a grand tour in China and a final competition with bigger prizes up for grabs including an opportunity to work with Huawei on its hyped 5G projects.