On Friday, March 15, 2024, Huawei, the giant Chinese technology corporation, acknowledged the ICT prowess of 21 Kenyans in Nairobi.
The corporation rewarded the 21 Kenyans, who are all students, for emerging winners in the just completed Huawei ICT annual competition.
They all received great opportunities for internships, and some jobs, and 18 of them were cleared to proceed to the finals. The 18 are expected to travel to China soon for the final stage of the Huawei competition in Information Communication and Technology.
In China, the Kenyans are set to meet participants from other parts of the world. This will help gauge Kenya’s ICT prowess at global level.
Kenya’s Internet Connectivity is Relatively High
The impressive performance by the Kenyan students should not be surprising. Kenya is the de facto hub for Information Communication and Technology in Eastern Africa.
Besides, the country’s internet connectivity is relatively high. By the beginning of 2023, 33% of the Kenyan population had access to the internet.
Registration for the 2023 – 2024 Huawei ICT competition began in September 2023, and 5,800 students from 40 Kenyan universities managed to register.
History of the Huawei ICT Competition
The Huawei competition, which involves participants from Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East , Central Asia, and other parts of the world, started in 2015.
By 2023, the competition had attracted students from around 74 countries, who came from more than 2,000 tertiary institutions.
The cumulative number of participants by this time was 120,000.
During the Huawei ICT competition award ceremony in Nairobi on Friday, there were senior government officials present. Among them was Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary in charge of Education, Ezekiel Machogu.