The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reaffirmed the commitment of the Government of Nigeria to building a digital-enabled nation in alignment with the Presidential Priority Areas of sustainable inclusive growth, food security, industrialization, innovation, and improved governance.
The Honorable Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, stated this on Wednesday in Abuja during a courtesy visit by the management of Huawei Technologies Nigeria to his office.
Speaking on Nigeria’s foreign policy thrust, the Minister explained the 4Ds Foreign Policy Initiative of the Ministry. He stated that Demography is the first D, noting that Nigeria’s youthful and vibrant population is the country’s greatest asset and the driving force behind innovation, entrepreneurship and national development.
The Minister further explained that the other pillars of the 4Ds are Development, Democracy, and Diaspora. He said the Ministry is leveraging these pillars to advance Nigeria’s interests globally, promote economic diplomacy, and deepen partnerships with strategic investors like Huawei.
The Minister stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is ready to prioritize and accelerate national diversification through industrialization and innovation, while also improving governance to promote digital diplomacy. He described Nigeria’s talent environment as very strong, with brilliant and inquisitive young people driving innovation across the country.
He urged Huawei to continue expanding its operations in Nigeria, create more jobs, and deepen skills and technology transfer so that Nigerians can share in the prosperity being generated.
In his remarks earlier, the leader of the Huawei delegation, Dr. Jim Zhang, expressed the company’s willingness and capacity to support Nigeria in building a digital-enabled country to achieve a `$1 Trillion economy.
He reiterated the fact that Huawei is a leading global provider of ICT infrastructure, smart devices, smartphones, home appliances, wearables, and lifestyle services.
The company has been operating in Nigeria since 1999. Its current footprint includes four branch offices in Kano, Ibadan, Enugu and Port Harcourt; two training centres in Lagos and Abuja; an innovation centre in Lagos; a service centre in Lagos; an open lab in Lagos; a local cloud in Lagos; and two additional branch offices under construction in Calabar and Katsina.
According to him, Huawei is actively driving digital transformation across key sectors in Nigeria through, Energy Transformation Deployment of the largest commercial and industrial solar power projects, Digital Intelligence Building of a Tier-4 Data Centre and launch of the first local cloud in Nigeria, Technical Talent Development Training of over 100,000 Nigerians since 2018,Ubiquitous Connectivity. Rollout of 3G, 4G and 5G network infrastructure across the country.
He also informed that Huawei also operates the LEAP Talent Development Framework aimed at training 120,000 technology professionals in Nigeria between 2018 and 2027.
The company reaffirmed its commitment to support Nigeria through five key pillars: Digital-enabled Government, Digital-enabled Society, Digital-enabled Industry, Digital Foundation, and Digital Talent.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to collaborate with strategic partners like Huawei to advance Nigeria’s digital diplomacy agenda and position the country as a leading digital economy in Africa.