More than 700 Kenyan civil servants on Thursday graduated from a week-long training program sponsored by Huawei to improve their ICT skills as the country accelerates the transition to a knowledge-based economy.
Joe Mucheru, cabinet secretary for ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, presided over the graduation ceremony for 784 public servants who successfully completed the course aimed at refining their digital skills.
“I wish to thank Huawei for working closely with the Ministry in developing this training program and for the many other projects we continue to collaborate in,” said Mucheru, according to a statement issued after the ceremony on Wednesday evening.
He hailed the partnership with Huawei, saying that it has powered Kenya’s digital revolution to help tackle youth unemployment, improve service delivery and boost online commerce.
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“We hope to continue to collaborate with Huawei technologies and look forward to a greater future together,” said Mucheru, adding that Kenya has prioritized capacity building to boost digital literacy among youth and government employees.
The ICT Ministry in partnership with Huawei commenced training of public servants in October in order to boost their knowledge in emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IOT), smart city, cybersecurity and e-government.
The trainees who included 514 non-technical and 270 technical staff from 100 public sector organizations were required to complete the week-long course and qualify for a certificate after passing a rigorous test.
Mucheru said that improving the digital skills of public servants will facilitate a seamless roll-out of e-government and hasten the realization of the fourth industrial revolution in Kenya.
“We need to be able to take advantage of emerging technologies such as AI, distributed ledgers, cloud infrastructure, robotics, 5G and the Internet of Things to spur socio-economic growth of our country,” said Mucheru.
Will Meng, CEO of Huawei Kenya, said that capacity development combined with the establishment of supportive infrastructure has been the hallmark of the firm’s corporate social responsibility in Kenya.
“The civil servants training was one of the aspects of a multi-pronged capacity building partnership between Huawei and the Ministry of ICT and we will continue to expand this program in the future,” said Meng.
He said that a partnership with Kenya’s ICT ministry to improve digital literacy and establish a robust infrastructure will unleash new jobs and improve service delivery in the public sector.
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