Chinese tech giant Huawei has announced the launch of its LEAP digital skills development programme at the recent Huawei’s ICT Competition Awards Ceremony held on the 9th of April 2022. Leap, an acronym for — Leadership, Employability, Advancement and Possibilities — is set to impact more than 100,000 youths in Sub-Saharan Africa with advanced ICT skills within the next three years.

The Leap programme fosters strong digital leadership and a skilled ICT workforce, builds a digital talent pool, and promotes digital literacy among African youths. The programme will include various activities spanning from ICT training and certification courses to government digital capacity building and ICT skills competitions.

 

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Leo Chen, Huawei Southern Africa President, stressed the importance of ICT skills transfer and talent development and underlined Huawei’s consistent emphasis on it. He said —

“Digitisation is deeply rooted in people. Because we digitise for people and by people. When roots are deep, there is no need to fear the wind. Through the programme, we strive to cultivate more youth leaders in ICT, who can explore more possibilities for themselves, their families, community and ultimately their nations.”

Huawei Digital Skills Advancement in Sub-Saharan Africa

A study by World Bank on Digital Skills says over 230-million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030. According to Huawei, the pandemic has spurred digital adoption across Africa. This increases the demand for more digital skills and talent.

The Huawei ICT Competition, 2021-2022, drew over 15 000 students from over 200 institutions and colleges across Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigerian and Kenyan teams took first place in the regional final out of 48 competing teams. The second place was won by teams from Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

“Huawei’s ICT Competition has provided students like me with a network of industry trainers, instructors, and learning tools, allowing us to obtain a competitive advantage and engage with other students on a global stage,” said Ashtone Onyango a member of the winning Kenyan team. “This is crucial for students as it not only helps them enhance their abilities but also increases their job market competitiveness.”

 

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Over the past two decades, Huawei has invested in advancing ICT skills for more than 80,000 youths across sub-Saharan Africa. According to the company, it has helped increase youth employability and bridge the gender gap in the ICT industry in the region. Huawei is a sought-after employer in the region. In 2021, it was awarded the Top Employer seal by its subsidiaries in nine Sub-Saharan African nations.

Speaking at the ceremony, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South African Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies said, “COVID-19 took us into the digital era, but we should not need a pandemic to do this for us in the future; we need to be deliberate and intentional to leapfrog our countries. We need innovation, we need to support local innovators, and we need to promote our own platforms throughout the continent to reach scale and develop our economies. We are only bigger when our market is bigger, and we must walk together.”

Also present at the ceremony was Prof. Eliamani Sadoyeka, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Tanzania, stressing the importance of ICT.

“ICT has given us almost equal access to knowledge. Once a young mind is connected, a girl from the village in Africa will have the same access to knowledge as a boy in Copenhagen,” he said.

He also mentioned that Africa’s future is in the hands of its youth, urging students to take advantage of every learning opportunity available to them. He praised Huawei’s ICT Academy for providing young people with a platform and skills in cutting-edge technology and the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Empowering African Youths to Solve Africa’s Problems

According to Huawei, the Huawei ICT competition has developed into the largest of its type in Africa and around the world. It provides students with a global platform to demonstrate and practise their ICT knowledge and abilities. Over 80,000 African university students have registered for the competition in the last five years, with more than 20 teams competing in the global finals.

A Top Performance Prize was awarded to the South African team that placed in the top ten of the Huawei Global Tech4Good Competition in 2021 for inventing an intrusion detection system that leverages wireless and cloud technology to combat rhino poaching.

Siyabonga Shandu, who was part of the South Africa intrusion detection system team, remarked that — “My proudest moment was learning that out of the 117 teams from around the world who participated in the Tech4Good challenge, we were part of the top 10 and the only team from the African continent. This shows we have the capacity and capabilities to create, innovate and build real African solutions to African problems.”

The LEAP programme, which will see more than 1,200 trainers facilitating 3,000 ICT courses, will be implemented due to the company’s investment to empower youths in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

It will also fund training centres, hardware installation bases, innovation hubs, mirror labs, and ICT academies, among other things. More than 300 universities and colleges in the region now have Huawei ICT academies.

At the ceremony, Leo Chen urged for strong collaboration between government, industry, and academics at the ceremony to build an ecosystem from which everyone can contribute and benefit.