HUAWEI CONTRIBUTES TO TANZANIA’S EDUCATION SECTOR

Prime Minister of the Republic of Tanzania Hon. Kassim Majaliwa shakes hands with Huawei’s Managing Director Bruce Zhang shortly after arriving at Hyatt Regency hotel in Dar es Salaam yesterday to officiate a joint donation ceremony hosted by the Chinese Embassy and Huawei Tanzania for Kagera earthquake victims and the launching of the Seeds for the Future program for 2017. He is flanked by (left to right) the Minister for Education Science and Technology Prof. Joyce Ndalichako, Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr. Augustine Mahiga and Deputy Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Mr.Gou Haodong.

Prime Minister Hon Kassim Majaliwa holds talks with the Deputy Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Mr. Gou Haodong (centre) and the Huawei Tanzania’s Managing Director Bruce Zhang, before the handover ceremony of 60M/=for the Kagera earthquake victims and another 220M/-to support education  sector through the ‘Seeds for the future’ program. The donation was made by the Chinese embassy in collaboration with Huawei Tanzania at Hyatt Regency in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Tanzania Hon. Kassim Majaliwa (second right) receives a dummy cheque from the Deputy Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Mr.Gou Haodong (second left) and Huawei Tanzania Managing Director Bruce Zhang(first left) during a joint donation ceremony hosted by the Chinese Embassy and Huawei Tanzania for Kagera earthquake victims held at Hyatt Regency in Dar es salaam yesterday. He is flanked by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr. Augustine Mahiga (first right) and the Minister for Education Science and Technology Prof. Joyce Ndalichako (centre).

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, has reinforced its support to Tanzania's Education sector

At a handover ceremony co-hosted by the Chinese Embassy and Huawei Tanzania, the company announced that Seeds for the future, its flagship CSR program, will benefit another 10 students from Tanzania in 2017, and Huawei will donate 60 million shillings to support the government to repair some of the affected schools in Kagera region, where a terrible earthquake happened earlier this month.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hon. Kassim Majaliwa, the Prime Minister for Tanzania, commended Huawei for cultivating ICT talents for Tanzania, and being a responsible corporate citizen.

He said Huawei has been an important partner in Tanzania’s ICT development and has continuously been supporting the government of Tanzania in ICT innovation as the government works to reform the ICT field through various projects.

“I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Huawei. Let me also take this opportunity to thank Huawei for the support during Seeds for the Future program. We hope Huawei’s cooperation with Tanzania, especially with the Ministry of Education, will continue. I want to assure students that the government will work hand in hand with Huawei, and the Chinese Embassy, to work on ICT programs. We expect to learn a lot from Huawei. We believe our students had learned a lot through the Seeds for the future program in 2016 from Huawei headquarters in China, which was helpful. I assure you again, the government of Tanzania will cooperate with Huawei, and the ICT program will be continued,” said the Prime Minister of Tanzania.

Prof. Joyce Ndalichako, the Minister for Education Science and Technology received the donation to support Kagera region from Huawei, and emphasized the importance of ICT talents cultivation: “I would like to thank Huawei for introducing the 'Seeds for the Future' program to Tanzanian students. From the testomony of the students who had participated in the program in 2016, I can tell that this program is very important. I assure you that the Ministry of Education will continue to cooperate with Huawei, because we do also realize that ICT is very important for even supporting education. We can leverage ICT to support the shortage of teachers in this country. Currently Huawei is finalizing the E-education project and it will take off in the near future to the secondary school education.”

Mr.Gou Haodong, Deputy Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, reiterated the long-lasting friendship between China and Tanzania:China and Tanzania help and support each other through thick and thin, and the supports to the education sector shown by Huawei today proved it again. We believe that Huawei, as a global ICT leader, will leverage its advanced technologies and global resources to promote the ICT industry in Tanzania.”

Mr. Bruce Zhang, Managing director of Huawei Tanzania, said : “We feel sorry for victims in Kagera region, and have made every effort we could to provide stable and reliable telecom network in the affected region so that rescue teams could quickly locate people in need, and people there could communicate with their families and friends. Besides doing what we’re specialized in, we will also donate 60 million shillings to schools in Kagera region, in order to make sure that students continue with their studies. ”

The Seeds for the future program is Huawei’s global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) flagship program. Through this program, Huawei Tanzania has put plans to make sure at least 100 students from Tanzania participate in the 10 year project meaning each year 10 students from Tanzania will have an opportunity to visit Beijing and work out of the company's headquarters in Shenzhen, China. In 2016, 10 of the best students from Tanzania benefited from the program, and 2 of them have been employed by Huawei.

By the end of the year 2015, the program had been implemented in 67 countries worldwide. In 2016, the plan is to organize at least 1,000 students from over 70 countries to visit China.

It is with this background that last year, the Government and Huawei signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for ICT cooperation, by which, Huawei became the official ICT advisor to the Tanzanian government. The company has also received an ‘Outstanding ICT leadership and contribution’ award from the Government for its leadership position in the ICT field in Tanzania.