The contestants now move on to the regionals in South Africa. Those who succeed will receive a sponsored trip to Shenzhen
The Kenyan round of the Huawei 2018 Global ICT Skills Competition in Nairobi, Kenya, came to a close on Nov 21 with 11 students emerging as national winners.
Six of the winners were from four Kenyan universities: Jomo Kenyatta University of Technology, Meru University, the University of Nairobi and Zetech University.
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Li Xuhang, charge d’affaires of the Chinese embassy in Kenya, presents an award to Kennedy Muthaura from Zetech University, the top winner of Huawei 2018 Global ICT Skills Competition’s Kenyan round. Lucie Morangi / China Daily |
Kennedy Muthaura of Zetech University was the champion of the Kenyan national final.
All of the winners will move on to the sub-Saharan regional round, which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the beginning of December. Those who succeed there will in turn go to Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on a fully sponsored trip for the global finals, which will draw competitors from more than 50 countries.
Kenya’s first such competition was launched in July and saw more than 4,000 information technology students register at the preliminary stages from 40 universities across the country. Of these, 600 were selected for training, after which the top 100 underwent further coaching at a boot camp session before taking nationwide exams conducted by Huawei.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Li Xuhang, charge d’affaires of the Chinese embassy in Kenya, urged Kenya’s information and communications technology students to leverage ICT to create miracles, just like what Huawei and Alibaba have achieved in China and across the globe.
“To empower the youth is to empower the whole nation. I encourage all young students to grasp opportunities presented by innovative technologies such as ICT to nurture homegrown global companies in Kenya. I also wish that they become ambassadors of friendly relations between Kenya and China, as the two countries are set to mark their 55th anniversary of diplomatic ties in December this year,” he said.
Launched in 2015, the competition challenges ICT students from all over the world to test their ICT capabilities and provides a platform for the exchange of skills and experiences.
“Huawei has demonstrated its commitment to leading digital transformation in Kenya through investing in young people by empowering them with the necessary knowledge and providing them with platforms and opportunities to sharpen their IT skills,” says Jerome Ochieng, principal secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology.
“We continue to work together to leverage technologies as catalyzing powers of the Big Four (development) Agenda, such as precision agriculture for food security, smart and technologically ready homes for affordable housing, and connected hospitals for universal healthcare,” he adds.
The Huawei ICT competition is a platform that is part of the Huawei Authorized Information and Network Academy, a certified program that provides the latest technical training and certification to students by training lecturers for the Huawei Certified Network Associate – Routing and Switching program.
(China Daily European Weekly 11/30/2018 page27)