Kenyans feted in LEAP summit as Huawei targets 150,000 Africans in digital skills programmes

At the 2024 Leadership Employability Advancement Possibility (LEAP) Summit on Friday, Danton Kipkirui (Moi University) and Sylvia Jebet were feted for their outstanding performance in Digital Content creation.

The talent programme, which admits students from various countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, equips them with digital skills to innovate and create technological solutions for their communities.

During the LEAP Summit, the technology company also feted Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Higher Education, Dr. Beatrice Muganda, for her work in the academic field.

Digital development plan

In 2022, Huawei unveiled the LEAP framework to guide digital talent development in Sub-Saharan Africa. As of June 2024, over 18,000 Africans have benefited from the programme which consists of skilling civil servants, ICT professionals, teachers, students and other practitioners in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Under the LEAP framework, Huawei trains its partners in digital power and cloud ecosystem, hosts training and incubations for teachers and also hosts job fairs.

Having trained over 18,000 people from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries, Huawei’s Sub-saharan Africa Executive Gao Xiang says the company now aims at skilling 150,000 people in the next three years.

In a panel discussion at the LEAP summit, PS Beatrice Muganda called for a holistic approach to digital upskilling, adding that technology companies need to pursue more partnerships with governments to encourage collaborative solutions.

“This will happen if you involve more of our experts, researchers, lecturers. Beyond focusing on students, lecturers also need to be engaged. If you can expand partnerships with other fields, we shall have everyone on board,” stated Muganda.

On her part, Dr.Amina Zawede, Uganda’s Chief Technology Officer called for supporting development of infrastructure to harness technological opportunities.

The DigiTruck initiative

Access to technological infrastructure and ICT skills has been a challenge for a number rural communities in Kenya, where key enablers such as power and network are scarce.

To counter this, Huawei launched the DigiTruck Initiative, where shipping containers are converted to mobile classrooms, where remote communities can obtain ICT skills.

The trucks have transversed remote communities in Kenya and Uganda, and are set for a similar tour in Tanzania and Nigeria.

This week, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Dr. Korir Singoei oversaw the graduation of more than 200 DigiTruck trainees in Trans Nzoia County.