By Dipo Olowookere
A leading information communication technology (ICT) solution supplier in the Nigeria telecoms market, Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, said it has made a total investment of $76 million in the country.
The Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, Mr Trevor Liu, made this known when he visited the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, last week in Abuja.
He said apart from that, his company made procurements worth $630 million with a tax revenue of $103 million between 2016 and 2019.
According to him, Huawei has created over 400 direct job opportunities in which 70 per cent are Nigerians. This, he stated, is in addition to over 60,000 indirect job opportunities and over 470 Nigeria sub-contractors and partners.
The company has in the country established international training centre in Abuja, with Innovation and Experience Centre and Regional Network Operation Centre (RNOC) in Lagos, he said.
Mr Liu also stated that in the company’s ICT job creation efforts, there is over 54 Huawei ICT Academy in universities and polytechnics and has certified over 880 students and teachers each year.
Over 13,600 Nigerian students participated in Huawei ICT Competition for 2018-2019 and won third prize in the global final, the company’s chief informed the Minister.
According to him, Huawei has provided ICT training for its Nigerian partners, customers, converging over 900 engineers each year, while over 400 engineers have got the company’s authorised ICT certification.
In its programme for government officers, Huawei trained 1000 government officers in ICT technology in 2019 apart from training 2000 youth in ICT in 2016, and training 1000 girls in 2014-2015 basic ICT, he said.
In her remarks, Mrs Ahmed commended Huawei for its investment in Nigeria, assuring the company of the federal government support.
However, she appealed to the firm to assist the Nigerian education system with affordable solutions that would guarantee digital value additions and accessibility to the rural communities so as to expand the country’s rural telephony.
The Minister said the education system has been most impacted by COVID-19 and only students and children in the cities have been able to have access to digital learning.
“A lot of our kids and students in the rural communities are not fortunate enough to plug into such platform,” she said.
She also appealed to Huawei to bring into Nigeria assembly plants and repair workshops that could help create jobs and expand the value chain for the Nigerian citizenry, noting that the country is a big market.
