BENJAMIN OMOIKE
Nigerian university students emerged winners in the Network and Cloud Category of Huawei’s Global ICT competition held in June 2022. This year’s theme is “Connection, Glory and Future,” and it marked the 6th ICT competition in Nigeria.
University of Port-Harcourt students, Udochi Daniella, Ushuta Anthony and Adebayo Samuel Olufemi won the Network Category, while, Ahmadu Bello University students, Micha B. Shalom, Yunus Abdullahi and Aliyu Isah won the Cloud Category. Ahmadu Bello University won third place in the Innovation Category.
Over 150,000 students from over 2000 universities and colleges in 85 countries and regions participated in the competition. After battling in their respective country-level and regional competition, 130 teams from 43 countries and regions made it to the Global finals.
Miss Udoci Daniella, a 400 level student from the University of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, whose group won the Network Category said that the Huawei ICT competition was a worthwhile experience that took a lot of sacrifices and commitment. She stated that, “Huawei Nigeria provided adequate resources and always cheered us on at every point, that is why we were able to achieve such excellent results.”
Narrating her winning experience, she said “I screamed so loud, it has to be the best thing that has happened to me this year, global recognition in a field that I love from a renowned company like Huawei.”
She added that she would love to see more women represent Nigeria in the competition in preceding years.
Mr Adebayo Samuel Oluwafemi, a 400 level student from the University of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, who also won the Network Category expressed that, “The competition wasn’t really demanding because I already had a deep understanding of networking from my academy.”
He concluded saying, “Special thanks to Huawei for helping to bridge the wide gap between industries and universities.”
Huawei hosts the ICT Competition annually to provide students with a platform to compete and exchange ideas, enhance their ICT knowledge and practical skills, and foster their capabilities to innovate by using new technologies and platforms.
This year’s Global finals were held online due to preventive measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, participants of this year’s competition will be the first to compete for a new series of Women In Tech Awards which have been designed to honor the outstanding talent displayed by the young women leaders in the competition.
The Huawei Enterprise’s President of Partner Development and Vice President of Global Partner Development and Sales, Steven Zhu, in his opening remark at the ceremony highlighted the fact that ICT industry development will require a large number of highly skilled ICT experts.
He said, “Huawei is trying to build education, industry and public talent ecosystems while improving digital skills across society so that our industry can flourish. As an important part of Huawei’s efforts to build an education talent ecosystem, the competition is essential for promoting equitable and high-quality education.”
