Huawei Technologies has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Government to train 1000 civil servants in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT).

Huawei Vice President of Middle East, Mr  Xue Man at the signing ceremony in Abuja on Thursday, said that the ICT for Change training was part of the organisation’s effort to be more localised and fulfill its corporate social responsibility.

Man said that in fulfilling the company’s social responsibility, Huawei was not looking at simple material donation, but mind enlightenment and talent cultivation.

“The ICT for Change training is aimed at empowering civil servants with fundamental ICT knowledge and skills. The training will enable them to keep pace with the rapid advancement of ICT technology and the increasing demand for digital transformation-government and smart city capabilities. With our rich experience in ICT, we will design and deliver the programme with our best subject matter experts”.

Quoting President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement during the Digital Africa Conference and exhibition in Abuja on June 8, 2016, Man said Huawei he totally agreed with the president’s point of view.

He quoted Buhari as saying, “Use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to drive the agenda in order to take the country to a higher level of development.

“Government has put in place so many policies that if well harnessed, it will make ICT contribute between 20 to 30 per cent to the GDP in the next four years,’’ he said.

Mr Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), commended Huawei for the initiative as it exemplified government’s partnership for private sector organisation to drive its implementation policies and programmes.

Mustapha said, “the ceremony marked another historic day in the annals of the current administration and the Federal Civil Service as the second phase of ICT for Change MoU is signed between the FG and Huawei.”

He said that the first phase of the programme tagged: “Seed for Future that commenced in January 2017 and concluded early 2018 achieved the training of 2000 Nigerian youths by Huawei as part of their contribution to national development. This empowerment programme complements government, youths and students development initiative and job creation”.

The SGF said that the second phase of the programme would be jointly anchored by Huawei and Galaxy Backbone.

Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation commended the initiative of Huawei to work with the Federal Government to train civil servants under its corporate social responsibility.

Oyo-Ita said, “the training will go a long way in helping government in one of goals in the 2017 to 2020 civil service reform which is capacity development for our civil servants, especially in area of technology know how.”

Mr Yusuf Kazuare, the Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone said that Huawei and Galaxy currently owned digital infrastructure to connect all Federal Government entities across the nation.

Kazuare said that the training of the 1000 civil servants was to equip them with digitisation skills for the digital infrastructure  being put in place.

(NAN)