10 Nov 2019

Region Enterprise, Mr Meng Qingbao on November 7 toured the University of Botswana (UB),  after the telecommunications giant’s recent donation of P1.5 million worth of telecommunications equipment to the institution.

In an interview, Mr Meng noted that this was the start of a partnership with one of the country’s premier learning institutions, which would bring significant advances in ICT developments and learning to Botswana.

He said through their partnership with the university, they hoped to equip young people with the latest technology to enable them to contribute significantly to the economy of the country.

He further noted that they had sponsored a setup of an ICT outdoor telecommunications training centre within the institution that would enable the exchange of ICT opportunities in Africa.

He said once the training centre is complete, it would give students access to 2G, 3G, 4G, GSM antennae, transmission and power solution with rectifiers.

Mr Meng said UB had some of the highest forms of  professionalism that he had seen, noting that it was interesting that many females were willing to learn computer science at UB unlike in other countries.

He also said they had been hosting UB students to take part in the Huawei competitions since 2018, to help students achieve the Huawei professional certificates and also attain skills in computing and big data analytics.

Moreover, he revealed that Huawei had been sending students from UB to China as part of the Seeds for the Future talent activation programme.

Computer science lecturer at UB, Dr Tshiamo Motshegwa noted that the university lacked the resources to take part in usable open science and open data research, which were essential to developing Botswana.

He expressed gratitude for the partnership, which he said would be important to their efforts in driving the country’s sustainable development goals.

Dr Motshegwa further stressed the importance of partnerships with technology driven institutions, which he said was critical to achieving transformational learning in the country.

“We cannot work in silos if we want to improve ICT sector driven opportunities in the country,” he said.  Ends