Huawei inaugurates innovation, experience center in Nigeria

NEW DELHI: Huawei has inaugurated its Innovation and Experience Center and the Joint Open Lab of the University of Lagos (Unilag) & Huawei in Lagos, Nigeria.

The Innovation and Experience Centre will also serve as a training platform to nurture more ICT talents thus Huawei in Nigeria will sign a Joint Innovation  memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Unilag for this purpose.

"Huawei Innovation and Experience Center was built on 500 ㎡, and the total cost of the Center sums up to 6 million USD. It is established under the concept of “Cloud”; which enables visitors to share Huawei global resources. All players in the industry are welcomed to join and enjoy its unique contents. It is set up to be an experience center where people can witness global best practice, exchange ideas, explore business solutions through innovation and also a platform to develop win-win ICT eco-system. The latest cutting edge ICT technologies such as 4.5G, Internet of Things and digital service innovation will be deployed on this platform," the company said in its statement.

Barr. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communications of Nigeria, said, “This is an epoch making event for a number of reasons, but most importantly is the fact that the present government is easily the first government to come on stage leveraging the benefits of the digital revolution with strategic partnership with Huawei Chinese company as a leading global supplier of ICT products, solutions and services. Therefore I would like to use this opportunity to express my appreciation on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria to Huawei Technologies for partnering with the Ministry in the area of Human and Institutional capacity development.”

Frank Li, Managing Director of Huawei Nigeria, stated that, “Huawei is dedicated to investment of industry innovation driven by both customer needs and new technologies. Huawei will continuously adhere to its strategic focus, investment, and the relentless pursuit of strategic breakthrough to face all challenges together with its partners. ” He further concluded by stating that continuous investment and resources will be put into ICT innovation to drive the digital economy in Nigeria and in other African countries.

The opening ceremony had in attendance: Barr. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, the Minister for Communications of Nigeria; Chao Xiaoliang, Chinese Consul General in Lagos; Frank Li, Managing Director of Huawei Nigeria; Prof. Duro Oni,Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Unilag, as well as the senior executives from the major operators.

ICT Industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Nigerian economy, with a 30% yearly increase rate. Consequently at the second quarter of this year 2016, ICT Industry has occupied 9.8% of Nigerian GDP.

In 1999, Huawei entered Nigeria. Over the last 17 years of development and growth, we have become a big family with over 1,200 staff of which 70% are locals. In order to assist Nigeria to develop its own ICT skills and infrastructure, Huawei Abuja ICT Training Center has trained more than 12,000 employee, customers, suppliers as well as partners. Last December, Huawei signed an MOU with The Federal Government of Nigeria, with the aim of providing more than 2,000 training opportunities to Nigerian youths.