China’s tech giant, Huawei Technologies, has unveiled the Huawei Namibia ICT Talent Programme for 2024-2025 and the Digital Rural Plus Programme.

The initiatives seek to foster inclusion and cultivate talent in the ICT industries in Namibia.

President Nangolo Mbumba and an accompanying delegation witnessed the unveiling at the Huawei headquarters outside Beijing on Tuesday.

The Huawei Namibia ICT Programme would see eligible students being offered scholarships to further their studies in ICT and related fields.

The Namibian government has since directed Huawei Technologies to work closely with the Ministries of ICT and Youth to implement the envisaged programmes.

For now, Huawei says the target is to train about 1,000 students through a joint operation with the Namibia University of Technology and Science (NUST).

Huawei Board Chairperson Liang Hua said that the company would further work with customers and partners to make more contributions to digital economic development in Namibia.

The Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Namibia, Michael Zhang, added, ‘On top of that, we do not want to leave the underprivileged behind. We will also help ministries set up smart classrooms by putting our idea hubs in the school, which will enable them to have remote education the same as the children in the city do.’’

The programme is also part of Huawei Technologies' broader objective to have more than 150,000 young people from Sub-Saharan Africa digitally equipped by 2027.