Frank Tumwebaze lauds Huawei for 2017 Seeds for the Future program

Hon. Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance has evening lauded Huawei for the 2017 Seeds for the Future program. Speaking at the launch ceremony of the program at Makerere University College of Computing and Informational Science, he noted that the program is in line with the ‘Digitization Uganda Strategy’ that is to be completed and launched soon.

“I thank Huawei for the great contribution to the ICT sector. Seeds for the Future program helps cultivate and pool together ICT professionals and students that are crucial to industry development, thus boosting ICT industry growth, driving the development of different sectors and contributing to lower unemployment rates over the long term. To the beneficiary students, please don’t take such opportunities lightly but rather maximize them to become better by gathering useful experiences’’, he said.

The program that was flagged off by H.E. Yoweri Museveni began in Uganda in 2016 with 10 ICT talents visiting China in Beijing and Shenzhen. These were trained in the Chinese culture such as language, calligraphy, painting learning, historical tour in Beijing and cutting-edge ICTs lessons, enterprise management experience sharing, lab practices, Huawei exhibition hall visit and solutions demonstration in Shenzhen, where Huawei’s headquarter is located.

“Our focus this year is to have the top 10 students out of the 35 students recommended by government universities of Uganda through competition. The judges will look through their proposals on “How to accelerate the development of Uganda through ICT” and select the best 10 for the program who shall travel to China on 2nd June for two weeks”, says Stanley Chyn Huawei’s Managing Director at the program launch ceremony.

The Assistant Commissioner Information and Communication of the Ministry of Education and Sports Mr. Patrick Muyinda commended Huawei for the program and noted that the Minister of Education approved to partner with Huawei for the activities under the Seeds for the Future 2017.

“The Ministry of Education and Sports is a partner of the Seeds for the future program 2017. This program was introduced to the Minister Hon. Janet Museveni earlier this year, which she welcomed and approved all the said activities and timelines to take place. On this note I thank Huawei for allowing us to be a part and parcel of an initiative that can only add to Uganda’s education sector through knowledge transfer, enhancement of teaching and scientific research capabilities and provision of high quality courses and opportunities for hands-on practice”, he said.

The Deputy Chief of Mission Chinese Embassy to Uganda Mr. Chu Maoming noted that Chinese companies like Huawei are committed to the well being of all Ugandans and affirmed that it is a policy for all Chinese enterprises to give back to the locals.

The Seeds for the Future program was initiated in 2008 by Huawei with over 2700 talents from all over the world for study trips in China.

“I have today afternoon Monday 24/4/2017 launched the #seeds4thefutureprogramme by #HuawaiTechnologies at #Makerere University. The programme is an annual event that Huawei implements in partnerships with the Ministries of ICT and Education. The best 10 qualifying ICT students selected out of a competition are taken to China for mentorship opportunities. In ICT innovations, mentoring innovators is a very important component of their research and development. I am glad our young ICT innovators are getting exposed. More of these opportunities will become apparent and available from other IT multinationals after we launch our Innovation support program in July. We so far have a good number of partners eagerly wanting to come on board and support young talents with potential to innovate and take products to the market,” Frank posted on his wall after the launch.