Huawei Uganda Invests $150m In Students

Huawei Uganda has committed $150 million to the Huawei Seeds for the Future Programme, a five-year plan to help ICT students improve their digital skills. “As part of our commitment to continuously developing talent, we will invest $150 million in Huawei Seeds for the Future Programme, over the next five years to help college students and young people improve their digital skills,” Liang Hua, Huawei’s Chairman said.

In 2008, Huawei began to expand its talent development programmes through scholarships, technology competitions, and digital skills training and has invested more than $150 million in these programmes which have seen more than 1.54 million graduate from over 150 countries.

Huawei’s Seeds for the Future was officially launched in Uganda in 2015. The announcement was made during a meeting between Huawei’s Senior Vice President Li Dafeng with President Yoweri Museveni during his official visit to Beijing. The programme has trained over 67 Ugandan students and approximately 22 have directly benefited through internships and job opportunities.

Seeds for the Future aims to help cultivate youth around the world, providing them with training from global ICT experts on the latest technology. It is designed to help them develop the skills and mindsets needed to be competitive in the workplace of the future.

The programme and Huawei’s efforts in ICT talent development in Uganda have been so far-reaching they have had to be recognised by the government. In 2018, while flagging off the students to China for further studies in the programme, the First Lady and Minister for Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, said the programme was crucial to Uganda’s ICT development, now a key driver for economic development globally. She further went on to thank Huawei Uganda for standing with Uganda in the struggle of building our muscle in ICT.

Through the Seeds for the Future Programme, students access Huawei’s latest technology including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Cloud Computing, 5G, Machine Learning, to mention a few, which gives them valuable insight into how ICT works to change lives. They are expected to innovate and create local solutions that serve national communities.

Yang Chen, Vice President of Huawei Southern Africa Region, said Huawei is committed to Africa’s human resource development. “Africa has the youngest population in the world. These youth are Africa’s greatest resource which will power the economy in the future. So at Huawei, we have partnered with African governments and education institutes to equip the future leaders with the latest knowledge in ICT at the very highest global levels and provide them opportunities to apply it to achieve a better future for the continent.”