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Nigerian Students Qualify for Huawei Global ICT Competition

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Twelve Nigerian students from the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and University of Port Harcourt have qualified for the Huawei Global ICT competition following an excellent performance in the cloud and network examination at the just concluded Huawei sub-Saharan Africa region ICT competition finals.

Nigerian Students Qualify for Huawei Global ICT Competition

The Huawei ICT Competition, which generally covers examination on the latest ICT technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, mobile networks and big data, is believed to be the biggest of its kind in Africa featuring 123 student-talents from 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, grouped into 41 teams (28 network track and 13 cloud track teams).

At the sub-Saharan regional finals, the students compete for 18 prizes and 12 admission tickets for the Huawei Global ICT Competition Final in October 2020, which will attract more than 300 other student-talents from 66 countries across the globe.

Team Nigeria had 15 students grouped into five teams who competed under the network and cloud segment.

The Nigerian students had a great performance which guaranteed four of the Nigerian teams’ tickets to the Global ICT Competition.

Two teams emerged first position and third position respectively in the Cloud examination, while two other teams of the Nigerian students emerged second position in the Network examination.

Due to the pandemic, the Huawei ICT sub-Saharan regional competition was held virtually.

The Nigerian students participated from the Huawei Technologies Nigeria offices in Abuja and Lagos respectively.

The Huawei ICT competition which is established to foster ICT learning in Africa and bridge the gap between theoretical study and practical experience typically comprises of a national preliminary contest, regional semi-final and a Global final.

Following a successful run at the national finals of the Huawei ICT Competition which was held on December 10th 2019 and had over 23,000 Nigerian students in the contest, 15 students were selected to represent Nigeria at the sub-Saharan Africa Region ICT competition finals which held on September 10th and 11th, 2020 to determine those who will be selected to participate the Huawei Global ICT Competition finals.

One of the Huawei Channel Training Managers for ICT Talent Ecosystem Development in Nigeria, Mr. Weilei, said: “The Huawei ICT competition was first launched in Nigeria in 2017 and currently runs under the Huawei ICT Academy which is in collaboration with more than 90 Nigerian universities. The Huawei ICT Academy was established to train students for free in the latest internationally relevant ICT skills in subjects such as Networks, Cloud Computing and Big Data. As at today, over 10,000 Nigerian students have benefitted.”

He added that “there are 150 instructors from partnering institutions, with 120 of them acquiring various Huawei certifications in different technology track and 250 training classes in various technology tracks, in Routing & switching, storage, cloud services, big data, W-Lan, security and AI delivered by Huawei certified instructors.”

Director, Huawei Nigeria Enterprise D&S Department, Ms. Melissa Chen, said: “The competition-related training has helped over 300 students receive job offers. In Nigeria alone, over 3,000 Nigerian students trained by Huawei have successfully passed the Huawei professional certification exams. Huawei hopes to skill up more than 700,000 ICT professionals by 2023. The aim is to bridge the ICT talent gap, advance the digital transformation of industries, and bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.”

Mr. Kenneth Igwe, another of the Huawei Channel Training Managers for ICT Talent Ecosystem Development in Nigeria, explained how the students were trained adequately for the examination by Huawei certified instructors, following hands-on trainings/internship with the company. He said: “Prior to the ICT competition, Huawei Technologies Nigeria took time out to train 9 of the 15 students who were also given internship opportunities with the company in Abuja and Lagos. Meanwhile, all the students had also been trained since January for this competition and many of them already acquired HCIA, HCIP and HCIP which are globally recognised certifications in various Huawei technology Courses.”

The students and instructors were glad to have qualified to represent Nigeria at the Huawei Global ICT competition which will be held later in the year 2020.

“I am excited we have qualified for the global finals since we have been preparing for this for over 8 months. Huawei gave us free access to their cloud services and also free vouchers to write the HCIP Cloud Services Certification and also support from their engineers” – Abdullahi Muhammad Khalifa, Cloud Team, student from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said.

“Huawei offered us internship opportunities which exposed us to real life projects and has played a major role towards our success in the regional final even as we look forward to a greater performance at the global finals. Connection, Glory, Future, the theme of the Huawei ICT Competition says it all. I am looking forward to the glory of becoming a world champion which will make the future brighter for me,” Ugheoke Anthony Oshiobugie, Network team student from the University of Port Harcourt, said.

“I feel very excited to be participating in the Huawei ICT Global Finals. It took a lot of time and effort to come this far and I am glad our team’s perseverance yielded great results. Huawei provided us with a suitable learning environment during our six weeks internship where we learnt about the emerging technologies such as Cloud and Storage,” Mustapha Abdullahi Jimoh, Cloud Team, and student from Ahamadu Bello University, Zaria, said.

“I am very excited to represent Nigeria in the global final and I will put more effort to bring the Gold medal home. Huawei has helped me in attaining my HCIA and HCIP R&S certifications and I also participated in a lot of rigorous trainings organized by Huawei including but not limited to HCIE training. These certifications and trainings really go a long way” – Abideen Bolaji Olaide (Network Team, student from University of Ibadan)

“I am so excited and honoured to represent Nigeria in the global finals, it has been an awesome experience so far. I was part of the boot camp at the Huawei office Abuja for about 2 months where we (I and my team) were extensively trained and well equipped for the regional finals. I am definitely looking forward to coming out in flying colours and making Nigeria proud at the global finals.” – Ukasanya Elma Tejiri (Network Team, student from University of Port Harcourt).

“What an intensive support from Huawei through the provision of quality trainings and exam vouchers right from the associate level to the expert level also the provision of quick access to study guides.” – Badiru Toheeb Adeniyi (Network Team, student from University of Ibadan).

“This competition made me learn a lot of things. Previously, I could not configure a Huawei enterprise router via the CLI. But after preparing for this competition, I have been able to configure, install and integrate some enterprise links using Huawei enterprise routers. The preparation for this competition has enabled me to master most of the syntax for setting up a Huawei router/switches via CLI. The Huawei Academy has been so helpful in our preparation for the Regional finals through well-planned online classes, lucid presentation via Meet/Zoom mobile Apps and excellent tutors. During the classes, we were given all the materials needed for the exam” – Ohagim Chinemere (Network Team, student from University of Port Harcourt).

 


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Dangote Refinery Denies Liquidity Challenges, Dismisses NNPCL’s $1Bn Loan Claim

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Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals (DPRP) has dismissed claims that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) used a $1 billion loan secured through a crude forward sale agreement to support the refinery during a liquidity crisis.

Dangote Refinery Denies Liquidity Challenges, Dismisses NNPCL’s $1Bn Loan Claim

In a statement on Wednesday, Anthony Chiejina, company’s chief branding and communications officer, said the NNPCL’s stance was a distortion of the facts.

“We would like to clarify that this is a misrepresentation of the situation as $1bn is just about 5% of the investment that went into building the Dangote Refinery,” Chiejina said.

Chiejina stated that the refinery’s decision to enter into a partnership with the NNPCL was based on the recognition of “their strategic position in the industry as the largest offtaker of Nigerian crude” and at the time, the sole supplier of petrol into Nigeria.

“We agreed on the sale of a 20% stake at a value of $2.76 billion. Of this, we agreed that they will only pay $1 billion while the balance will be recovered over a period of 5 years through deductions on crude oil that they supply to us and from dividends due to them,” Chiejina said.

“If we were struggling with liquidity challenges we wouldn’t have given them such generous payment terms. As at 2021 when the agreement was signed, the refinery was at the pre-commission stage.”

According to the statement, the agreement would have been cash-based rather than credit-driven if the refinery struggled with liquidity issues.

The refinery’s spokesman said the NNPCL was subsequently unable to supply the agreed 300,000 barrels a day of crude (bpd).

He stated that the shortfall was because the NNPPC “had committed a greater part of their crude cargoes to financiers with the expectation of higher production which they were unable to achieve”.

“We subsequently gave them a 12-month period for them to pay cash for the balance of their equity given their inability to supply the agreed crude oil volume,” he said.

“NNPCL failed to meet this deadline which expired on June 30th 2024. As a result, their equity share was revised down to 7.24%. These events have been widely reported by both parties,” he said.


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9mobile Addresses Recent Service Outages, Apologizes for Inconvenience

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9mobile has apologized for the recent service outages experienced by its valued customers which has affected their ability to provide voice, data, internet services. “We understand the frustration these disruptions have caused and deeply regret the inconvenience.

“Our technical team has identified the root causes of the outages including a fire incident at our Main Data Centre in Lagos last night which severely impacted services especially in the Lagos and South-West.  We are grateful for the swift intervention of the Lagos State Fire Service, which helped prevent further damage.

“Prior to the fire incident, our network experienced major fibre interruptions leading to varying degrees of outages. We had a fibre cut on the backbone links in Lagos which led to a total data outage across the country.

“This was followed closely by two vandalism incidents in Lagos and Abuja, leading to total service outage in South-West and data service outage in the North.  Services have now been fully restored in the North & South-South States while restorations work is ongoing in others. We expect to fully restore services as soon as possible”

At 9mobile, customer satisfaction is remains top priority. “We value the trust you place in us and appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging time. Customers who continue to experience issues can reach out to our customer service team via our social media touchpoints or our experience centres”.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for the disruption and thank you for your continued support.


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NAF Delegation Visits Zinox Technologies, Discuss Partnership

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A high-level delegation from the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) recently visited Zinox Technologies, Africa’s foremost integrated ICT solutions company, exploring avenues for a strategic partnership to strengthen the Air Force’s operational and technological infrastructure.

The delegation, led by AVM SK Usman, Chief of Communications Information Systems (CCIS), included notable figures such as Dr. Asogbon, Strategic Consultant on Communication, Air Commodore Isah, Commander of the 041 CIS Dep, Air Commodore AI Hanidu, Director of Information Technology, Air Commodore HC Usman, Director of Electronic Warfare, Squadron Leader Bilawu, and Group Captain Oloretore, Commander of the 641 CIS Group.

During the visit, NAF representatives commended Zinox Technologies for its significant contributions to technological development across Nigeria and Africa. They emphasized the importance of collaboration in addressing critical needs, including the localization and implementation of robust data storage solutions at NAF headquarters and nationwide offices to ensure data security and accessibility, as well as deploying intelligent and advanced video surveillance systems to enhance security and operational efficiency.

Additionally, the discussions highlighted providing reliable and efficient alternative power solutions to support critical operations and establishing and equipping annex facilities to meet the NAF’s growing data storage and processing requirements. Both parties also proposed solutions to support the development of various data centres for the Air Force. These discussions underscored Zinox’s capability to meet NAF’s complex requirements, leveraging its experience and innovative technology offerings to enhance national security operations.

Zinox Technologies, known for its pioneering role in the African tech industry, has a proven track record and a rich history of impactful projects across Nigeria and the continent. The company has been instrumental in driving digital transformation initiatives, providing cutting-edge IT solutions, and supporting numerous sectors with innovative tech products.

The foremost tech company has executed several transformative initiatives, including Africa’s largest ICT voter registration rollout and impactful e-education and e-health projects in Nigeria. Zinox holds prestigious certifications such as the Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Lab Certification and ISO 9001:2000.

Zinox’s commitment to technological advancement has earned them a reputation as a leader in the African tech ecosystem, making them a trusted partner for the NAF’s ambitious projects.

By partnering with Zinox, the NAF aims to leverage indigenous cutting-edge technology to enhance its operational capabilities and contribute to the overall development of the Nigerian Air Force. This collaboration highlights Zinox’s unwavering commitment to leveraging technology to support Nigeria’s growth and development.

 


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