Huawei Technologies Ghana in collaboration with Ghana’s Ministry of Energy has organised an ICT workshop for staff and management of the Ministry.

The three-day workshop which benefitted 50 civil servants from the Energy Ministry took place focused mainly on highlighting Digital Transformation Trends in the Energy sector as well as building the ICT skills capacity of participants.

The workshop is this year’s curtain-raiser for the Huawei Ghana Hi-Class (Huawei Intelligent Ghana Hub Class) initiative which is part of the HIT (Huawei ICT Training) program targeted at benefiting 10,000 Ghanaians by 2024.

At a brief opening ceremony, the Deputy Energy Minister, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, stressed the Ministry’s desire to build the ICT capacity of the staff. 

“All around the world economies are bracing themselves for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and at the core of these preparations is Digital Technology or ICTs. It has therefore become imperative for industries to embrace Digitalization in order to remain competitive in this new era… and as a Ministry, we are committed to building the capacity of our human resources to boost ICT literacy” he said.

The Deputy Minister also commended Huawei for the initiative and called for more cooperation. He said; “I would like to commend Huawei for organising this workshop for the Ministry.

I hope that the workshop will go a long way to facilitate the digitalization processes of the sector. As an industry leader in ICT, the Ministry will also look forward to engaging Huawei to leverage on your [Huawei’s] global experience to transform the energy sector in Ghana.”

Speaking on the importance of digitalizing the energy sector, Robin Liu Executive Vice President, Global Energy Business Unit, Enterprise Business Group at Huawei Global Headquarters said, “All over the world, the Energy industry remains the bedrock of Economies and Industries.

"Almost every industry relies on Energy or Power to function properly in one way or the other and this makes the sector the anchor of many economies and it is therefore important that in going digital, the energy sector should be of critical interest for all.”

Mr Liu added that “Huawei has helped many countries to digitalize key industries in the energy sector, mainly, Oil and Gas, and the Electricity or Power sectors and through the workshop, the company will it’s expertise and experience to help propel the digitization of these industries in Ghana.”

The Deputy Managing Director at Huawei Ghana, Kweku Essuman Quansah said, “The workshop forms part of activities geared towards fulfilling a commitment we made to the Government of Ghana through the President of the Republic to build the ICT skill capacity of up to 10,000 Ghanaians by the year 2024.”

He added that Huawei as an industry leader believes that in order to fully achieve a digital Ghana and the world at large, the ICT skill gap of countries and industries must be closed, hence as a socially responsible organisation, the company will continue to invest resources to achieve this goal.

During the workshop, expects from Huawei’s global Headquarters, industry leaders and resource persons both local and international were engaged by Huawei Ghana to handle various sessions according to their area of expertise.

The Participants were taken through the 10th – 14th 5-Year Plans of the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) spanning from the year 2000 to 2025. A well-planned journey that has seen CNPC increase production by 300% (i.e. from 20M barrels to 60M barrels).

The workshop also took participants through how digital transformation helps Electric Power Companies to Transform and Upgrade as well as maximize and improve return on investment (ROI) to help these enterprises explore new business models while seizing the best business opportunities.

To draw the curtains down on the Digital Transformation for the Energy Sector, the participants were taken through how power companies can aid the Fibre rollout processes by leveraging on the synergies between Power and Telecom fixed networks thus making it easy for infrastructure sharing.

Huawei’s Industry-leading solutions and Business Models for this approach was also shared and backed by successful case studies from advanced economies like Saudi Arabia, Italy and Ireland.

The second and third days were however dedicated to the practical ICT skill workshop on the Microsoft Office Suite. This session helped participants to advance their knowledge and efficiency in using the program, while getting familiar with the new and enhanced features across all applications in the MS Office Suite, 2016.

Participants also got the opportunity to embark on a virtual tour of Huawei’s ultramodern Enterprise Digital Transformation Exhibition Center to witness the real-time application of digital technologies that is transforming the energy industry.

Huawei Ghana is undertaking several initiatives under the HIT (Huawei ICT Training) Program which is in three segments namely the Hi-Class Program (Huawei Intelligent Ghana Hub Class), ICT Academy (University Talent Program) and the Technology-enabled Open Schools System (TOSS) which will benefit Public servants and Industry Professionals, Tertiary and TVET students and Basic Schools respectively.