The Chinese Government has pledged its assistance to Nigeria in fostering internet usage from the current 47.4 percent to 75 percent by 2020.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2017 Overseas Training Course on Telecommunications Technologies for Nigeria at The Huawei Training Centre, Abuja, the Consular of China Embassy in Nigeria, Mr Zhao Linxiang said the support would come in the areas of infrastructure, such as power supply, buildings and development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
He said the cooperation would not only contribute to Nigeria’s Digital Change, but create opportunities at all sectors for the teeming youth and generate massive employment.
He said as a mark of fruitful cooperation with Nigeria, Huawei Technology Company, had built over 20,000 base stations across the country thereby making communications penetration increased to over 83 percent from 0.02 percent ten years ago.
He added that with the development Nigeria now had more than 150 million mobile users.
“In 2014, we cooperated with the Ministry of Communications and trained over 1000 girls in ICT, in 2015, we signed an MOU with the Office of the Vice President to provide training for 2000 unemployed youths in order to empower them with necessary ICT skills,” Mr Linxiang said.
He said the emphasis on training for Nigerians was aimed at ensuring that the country keep abreast with developments in the ICT sector, stressing that ICT as a fast developing industry has evolved from G2 to G3,from G3 to G4 and now the race is moving from G4 to G5.
Speaking at the function, the Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Nigeria and China Trade Relations, Yusuf Buba Yakubu noted that the 8th National Assembly established his Committee because of the growing volumes of trade and cooperation between Nigeria and China.
He China had demonstrated that it was a friend indeed to Nigeria for its enormous support for the country, especially in the areas of infrastructure development, ICT, import and export and training of Nigeria civil servants, assuring the National Assembly would not hesitate to pass legislations that would boost the levels of collaboration between the two countries.
