ABUJA, July 4 (Xinhua) -- China's technology giant Huawei on Thursday showered encomium on young Nigerians who have proved to have exceptional talent in Information Communications Technology (ICT), urging them to use their gifts for national development.
During a presentation of awards organized by the company in Abuja for Nigerian students who emerged the top three winners in the 2018-2019 Global Final of Huawei ICT Competition in China earlier in the year, the Chinese firm said it aims to have students quickly aligning with the industry requirements by mastering the latest ICT technologies while they are still on campus.
The ICT whizkids had emerged as winners in the 2018-2019 Huawei ICT Competition, a global ICT talent exchange event, which comprises Huawei Authorized Information and Network Academy universities and related colleges known as Huawei ICT Academy.
According to Tank Li, the CEO of Huawei Nigeria Enterprise, the competition had over 13,000 students from more than 30 universities who joined the competition in the country.
Tank said after three rounds of the competition, one nationally, one in sub-Saharan African region and one global competition, six Nigerian students emerged as the best both in the country and the sub-Saharan region.
"Your hard work, efforts, and brilliance are one of the reasons we are here today," Li told the awardees, noting Huawei's vision in Nigeria is to create an ICT talent ecosystem that will form the foundation in the digitalization plan for the nearest future.
Twenty-year-old Muhammad Mustapha Maihaja, who won the national best award and also regional award, told Xinhua the Huawei competition had given him the best opportunity of his life.
"ICT had not been what I intended to do but it just came my way. The moment I got into ICT, I believed that this was my path and this is what I am supposed to do. I got the notion that I could do it and even do it better than anybody else," said Maihaja, a 400-level computer engineering student of Nigeria's prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Several other awards were presented to instructors, as well as cooperative ICT academies in universities across the country.
