The Ministry of Science and Higher Education and Huawei have signed an agreement aimed at talent cultivation for the development of the ICT industry and the nurturing of highly skilled labor.
The agreement incorporates the training of ICT students, holding an ICT competition, and involving students in online learning & certification programs.
The program includes training and certification of 500 students through ICT Academies within one year. Students can choose online & offline courses such as Routing and Switching, Security, Storage, AI, and so on.
The two parties agreed to work on Huawei ICT Competition expected to bring 1,000 students from 39 universities to compete for the national prize. The winner of the national prize will have the chance to represent their country in May 2022, at the global final.
For the students who are just embarking on their studies at universities, through Huawei’s flagship CSR program called Seeds for the Future, at least 40 students will attend the online study program this year.
The pact inked today will also facilitate a job fair called ICT Handshaking Forum which will benefit more than 400 newly graduated graduates.
More ICT Academies for Ethiopia
Addis Ababa Angels invests in Eshi Express
Addis Ababa Angles Network announced its investment in Eshi Express, a delivery service firm, as part of the strong belief in the transformational capacity of a robust startup ecosystem on the nation’s economy.
Delivery business plays a big role in one country’s economic development and as Ethiopia is embarks on a digital economy this service becomes more crucial for its success. Delivery service in Ethiopia is highly fragmented and predominantly done by company vehicles, personnel or informal players. This leads to high cost of goods, management headaches and inconvenience to people and organizations. Addressing the last mile challenge will be essential for economic growth and Ethiopia’s digital transformation.
Founded by a group of investors in 2020, the Addis Ababa Angels Network is the first in Ethiopia to invest in startups and entrepreneurs in exchange for equity ownership aiming to build a robust startup ecosystem in Ethiopia that addresses the existing funding gap and targets early-stage innovative startups.
ECA’s Songwe echoes Africa’s expectation from the G7 summit
Leaders of the Group of Seven nations (G7) including the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, are meeting for a three-day summit in the UK from 11 to 13 June 2021. Their discussions will focus mainly on issues relating to COVID-19 recovery, climate change and trade.
Ahead of the G7 summit, Vera Songwe, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) conveyed the following points, which capture Africa’s expectation from the G7 leaders.
Songwe echoed the need for a “historic vaccines roadmap where the G7 stop hoarding, start sharing the financing, the doses and the manufacturing capacity needed to deliver on vaccine access.”
Her second point was on the urgent need for a historic green recovery financing and coordination agreement, leveraging the IMF Special Drawing Rights and World Bank balance sheets, meeting the $100 billion climate finance pledge, and doubling individual climate finance pledges by G7 countries.
The UN official’s third point was an interrogation on the G7 aid cuts, which disproportionately hit and hurt African nations (cut by two-thirds), disproportionately hit women (cut by 80-90%), and disproportionately hit the UN system agencies like UNAIDS, UNFPA UN Women.
WFP receives €8.5 million from Germany for emergency food assistance
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) received a contribution of €8.5 million for 2021-2023 from the people of Germany to provide emergency assistance to save lives and the livelihoods of communities affected by conflict and climate change in Ethiopia. It is part of Germany’s flexible funding for the Eastern Africa region.
Germany’s donation will contribute to WFP’s Tigray emergency response that aims to reach up to 2.1 million people with urgently needed food and nutrition assistance. A total of 5.2 million people, or 91 percent of Tigray’s entire population need emergency food assistance due to conflict.
The donation will also support WFP’s refugee response in the country and help to deliver life-saving and life-changing emergency food assistance to communities in Ethiopia’s Somali region who are affected by extreme climate shocks.
“WFP welcomes this timely and generous contribution from the people of Germany to enable us to respond to the most urgent humanitarian needs across the country,” said WFP Ethiopia’s Representative and Country Director Dr. Steven Were Omamo.
