Uganda’s Minister of ICT and National Guidance Dr Chris Baryomunsi has reiterated the country’s goal to be the region’s top ICT hub, and points to the alliance the government has with Huawei Uganda in helping to achieve this.

At the recent launch of the Huawei ICT Talent Development Report in Kampala, the Minister said it was important for young people to have the skills, passion, determination and support to develop and use their ICT skills to drive the country forward.

He added that government needs partners in private sector such as Huawei, not only in implementing technology solutions, but more importantly in working together to build the skills in our current and future workforce.

“The NRM government have put digital upskilling a top priority and this is witnessed in the Vision 2040 - which is, Uganda shall develop and improve its ICT capacity, building efforts by adopting globally-benchmarked, industry-rated skills assessments, and training and certification standards. These efforts will be coupled with international industry collaboration in testing and certification standards,” he said.

The ICT minister said Uganda’s National ICT policy of 2014 highlights strategies of human resource development including inclusion of a comprehensive and regularly updated computer literacy module in the curriculum at all levels of education using international benchmarks as a reference.

The Minister lauded initiatives such as the Huawei ICT Academy, Huawei ICT Competition, and Huawei Seeds for the future among others “as helping to make Uganda realise its 2040 vision and 2014 National ICT Policy sooner.”

Baryomunsi added, “ICT is a critical part to Uganda’s socio-economic development and big enabler of job creation, business growth, innovation, export, and efficient public service delivery.”

According to Huawei it has continued to play an active role in Uganda’s digital transformation through technological infrastructure and digital upskilling. This has been the case since 2007 when Huawei started its collaboration with the Ministry of ICT when the National Backbone infrastructure project commenced.

Huawei ICT Development Report 2021 launch was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister Rukia Nakaddama Isanga, Minister of Education - higher education Dr JC Muyingo, as well as MD of Huawei Uganda Gao Fei.