The ICT Authority and Huawei Technologies have signed a three-year partnership to improve capacity, infrastructure development and ICT Advisory services in the country. The deal was signed at a ceremony officiated by Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of ICT, Dr Fred Matiangi, Chinese Ambassador, Mr Liu Xianfa and Principal Secretary, Ministry of ICT Mr Joseph Tiampati. The co-signers of the agreement were the ICT Authority, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr Victor Kyalo and Huawei Technologies, Chief Executive Officer, Mr Dean Yu.
The partnership will deliver on four main activities namely; An Engineering students internship programme, a broadband Stakeholders forum to be held in October, Infrastructure development, general ICT awareness and CSR activities.
Under capacity building, Huawei will for the next three years give a total of 100 internship opportunities to engineering students in 4th and 5th year of study. This is set to commence in July this year. The online criteria will be managed through KENET (https://www.kenet.or.ke/) who is the liaison partner to Universities. The top ten attaches will be offered a chance to further their skills in China.
“We are committed to working through various partners in the delivery of our mandate. In the past we have seen success in skills-transfer programs in which we deliver through the private sector. This is the model we will continue to work on,†said Victor Kyalo, ICT Authority, Acting Chief Executive Officer.
The agreement has also incorporated a program under Huawei’s CSR initiative, “Telecom Seeds for the futureâ€, which focuses on nurturing and empowering students to be technology leaders of tomorrow. The two entities will target academic institutions to transfer knowledge to the students.