12 Nigerian students qualify for Huawei global ICT competition finals

Twelve Nigerian students from the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and University of Port Harcourt have qualified for the Huawei Global ICT Competition following an excellent performance in the Cloud and Network examination at the just concluded Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region ICT Competition finals. The Huawei ICT Competition, which generally covers examination on […]

Twelve Nigerian students from the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and University of Port Harcourt have qualified for the Huawei Global ICT Competition following an excellent performance in the Cloud and Network examination at the just concluded Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region ICT Competition finals.

The Huawei ICT Competition, which generally covers examination on the latest ICT technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, mobile networks and big data, is believed to be the biggest of its kind in Africa.

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It featured 123 student-talents from 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, divided into 41 teams (28 network track and 13 cloud track teams).

At the Sub-Saharan regional finals, the students compete for 18 prizes and 12 admission tickets for the Huawei Global ICT Competition Final in October 2020, which will attract more than 300 other student-talents from 66 countries across the globe.

Team Nigeria had 15 students, divided into 5 teams, who competed under the Network and Cloud segment.

The Nigerian students had a great performance, which guaranteed four of the Nigerian teams’ tickets to the Global ICT Competition.

Two teams emerged first position and third position respectively in the Cloud examination, while two other teams of the Nigerian students emerged second position in the Network examination.

Due to the pandemic, the Huawei ICT Sub-Saharan regional competition was held virtually.

The Nigerian students participated from the Huawei Technologies Nigeria offices in Abuja and Lagos respectively.

The Huawei ICT competition, which is established to foster ICT learning in Africa and bridge the gap between theoretical study and practical experience, typically comprises of a national preliminary contest, regional semi-final and a Global final.

Following a successful run at the national finals of the Huawei ICT Competition, which was held on December 10th 2019 and had over 23,000 Nigerian students in the contest, 15 students were selected to represent Nigeria at the Sub-Saharan Africa Region ICT Competition finals which held on September 10th and 11th, 2020 to determine those who will be selected to participate to the Huawei Global ICT Competition finals.

The competition

Mr. Weilei, one of the Huawei Channel Training Managers (for ICT Talent Ecosystem Development in Nigeria), said “the Huawei ICT competition was first launched in Nigeria in 2017 and currently runs under the Huawei ICT Academy which is in collaboration with more than 90 Nigerian universities.

“The Huawei ICT Academy was established to train students for free in the latest internationally relevant ICT skills in subjects such as Networks, Cloud Computing and Big Data.

“As at today, over 10,000 Nigerian students have benefitted.”

He added that “there are 150 instructors from partnering institutions, with 120 of them acquiring various Huawei certifications in different technology track and 250 training classes in various technology tracks, in Routing & switching, storage, cloud services, big data, W-Lan, security and AI delivered by Huawei certified instructors.”

Ms Melissa Chen, Director, Huawei Nigeria Enterprise D&S Department said: “The competition-related training has helped over 300 students receive job offers.

“In Nigeria alone, over 3,000 Nigerian students trained by Huawei have successfully passed the Huawei professional certification exams.
“Huawei hopes to skill up more than 700,000 ICT professionals by 2023.

“The aim is to bridge the ICT talent gap, advance the digital transformation of industries, and bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.”

Mr. Kenneth Igwe, another of the Huawei Channel Training Managers (for ICT Talent Ecosystem Development in Nigeria) explained how the students were trained adequately for the examination by Huawei certified instructors, following hands-on trainings/internship with the company.

He said “prior to the ICT competition, Huawei Technologies Nigeria took time out to train 9 of the 15 students who were also given internship opportunities with the company in Abuja and Lagos.

“Meanwhile, all the students had also been trained since January for this competition and many of them already acquired HCIA, HCIP and HCIP which are globally recognised certifications in various Huawei technology Courses.”

What the students said

The students and instructors were glad to have qualified to represent Nigeria at the Huawei Global ICT Competition which will be held later in the year 2020.

“I am excited we have qualified for the global finals since we have been preparing for this for over 8 months.

“Huawei gave us free access to their cloud services and also free vouchers to write the HCIP Cloud Services Certification and also support from their engineers,” Abdullahi Muhammad Khalifa (Cloud Team, student from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria) said.

“Huawei offered us internship opportunities which exposed us to real life projects and has played a major role towards our success in the regional final even as we look forward to a greater performance at the global finals.

“Connection, Glory, Future, the theme of the Huawei ICT Competition says it all.

“I am looking forward to the glory of becoming a world champion which will make the future brighter for me.” – Ugheoke Anthony Oshiobugie (Network team, student from the University of Port Harcourt) said.

“I feel very excited to be participating in the Huawei ICT Global Finals.

“It took a lot of time and effort to come this far and I am glad our team’s perseverance yielded great results.

“Huawei provided us with a suitable learning environment during our 6 weeks internship where we learnt about the emerging technologies such as Cloud and Storage,”, said Mustapha Abdullahi Jimoh (Cloud Team, student from Ahamadu Bello University, Zaria).

“I am very excited to represent Nigeria in the global final and I will put more effort to bring the Gold medal home.

“Huawei has helped me in attaining my HCIA and HCIP R&S certifications and I also participated in a lot of rigorous trainings organized by Huawei including but not limited to HCIE training.

“These certifications and trainings really go a long way,” Abideen Bolaji Olaide (Network Team, student from University of Ibadan) said.

“Looking at the performance of the students, I am just so happy.

“I am encouraged by the way they embrace this challenge, and always look forward to even more challenges.

“Huawei really helped in preparing us for the finals by making a pool of learning resources available online which we can always refer to at any time.

“More preparation time would go a long way for the students as they anticipate the global finals.

“A great performance is what I look forward to,” Adebayo, Samuel Oluwafemi (Network Team, Instructor from University of Port Harcourt) said.