(Ecofin Agency) - Huawei technology partnered with the UNESCO, African Universities and various actors of the tech world to launch a training program for ICT talents in Sub Saharan Africa.

Materialized on November 13, 2018, in Cape Town, South Africa, during the first day of AfricaCom 2018, the initiative plans for certification programs from Huawei.

Michael Meng, services Director of the Huawei Enterprise Business Group for Southern Africa, explains that the company wants to demonstrate that "the young talent in Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to mature into world-class expert, […] By enhancing industry-academic cooperation, we, as an international ICT Company, hope to make our contribution to achieving the continent's development goals".

According to the World Economic Forum, young Africans with diploma or ICT competencies were about 2% of the student age population in Africa in 2017.  

In addition, in its 2017 report on IT Development index, the International Telecommunication Union revealed that the level of ICT expertise was still below the world average in Africa. For a continent which wants to focus on the IT sector for its development, additional efforts need to be made.

According to Babacar Kane, director of the West African French-speaking center at IBM, "by 2040, our continent will have the largest labor force in the world, more than 1 billion people, ahead of China and India. The challenge will be to support this labor force in terms of education, training, and access to job and entrepreneurship to transform the economic dynamic in the continent… New technologies like cloud, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity are the main digital evolution presently. The rapid IT development leads to the creation of new jobs. It is probable and even evident that half of the jobs existing today could disappear by 2025 and, to remain in the force, it is necessary to develop many competencies”.