Huawei Uganda Launches ICT Talent Development Report

Huawei Uganda in partnership with the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance have launched the ICT Talent Development Report at Kampala Serena Hotel. ICT Minister Chris Baryomunsi and Huawei Uganda Managing Director, Gao Fei, witnessed the ceremony with a call on researchers and organisations to embrace the use of ICT to accelerate economic development.

Minister Baryomunsi awarded outstanding lecturer, Olinga Peter John, who trained the winners of the Huawei ICT Competition in 2020, both at the regional and global level. He lauded initiatives such as the Huawei ICT Academy, Huawei ICT Competition, and Huawei Seeds for The Future among others, as helping Uganda realise its vision 2040. He said it’s through initiatives such as these that involve skilling of young people, to enable Uganda to achieve socio-economic development and be relevant in the new digital era. “ICT is a critical part of Uganda’s socio-economic development and a big enabler of job creation, business growth, innovation, export, and efficient public service delivery,” said Baryomunsi.

“The government has made digital upskilling a top priority. This is witnessed in Vision 2040. Uganda shall develop and improve its ICT capacity, build efforts through 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,” he added. Baryomunsi said Uganda’s National ICT policy of 2014 highlights strategies of human resource development, with the inclusion of a comprehensive and regularly updated computer literacy module in the curriculum at all levels of education using international benchmarks as a reference.

Huawei has been playing an active role in Uganda’s digital transformation through technological infrastructure and digital upskilling. This has been the case since 2007 when Huawei started its collaboration with the Ministry of ICT when the National Backbone Infrastructure Project commenced.

Huawei ICT Development Report 2021 launch was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Rukia Nakaddama Isanga, State Minister for Higher Education Dr JC Muyingo and Chinese embassy representatives. They included the economic and commercial counsellor Mrs Jiang Jiqing and the Huawei Southern Africa regional representative Frank Yang Chen among others.