Cisco moves to build digital workforce across Africa
…To train 1million new people in its Networking Academy
Cisco has reinforced its commitment to support the digitisation of Africa’s communities, businesses and governments through several initiatives for skills and talent development, innovation and job creation.
The global IT and networking company is set to launch a new repair centre, train one million new members of Cisco Networking Academy (Netacad) and introduce Cisco Edge in Nigeria.
Cisco says that by investing in repair centres in Nigeria, it intends to contribute to job creation and skills development. The new repair centre will work as a partner program which aims to work with selected distributors who will repair and restore Cisco hardware and make high quality, refurbished technology accessible, especially for small and medium sized organisations. In addition to repair, Cisco intends for the centers to carry out testing, quality engineering, fulfillment, process management and procurement, as well as inventory control, serving Cisco’s customers in Nigeria.
Commenting on the partner repair program, Olakunle Oloruntimehin, general manager Nigeria and West African countries, Cisco said; “
we are living in a world that is changing faster than ever imagined. We are inspired by the prospect of an economy with abundant jobs, a place where entrepreneurs can thrive. Our goal is to enable small and medium businesses to accelerate their growth by helping them access our world class technology.”
“Our goal is to create value through ‘glocal’ manufacturing and channel models. By glocal, we mean utilizing global manufacturing practices with local execution. We look forward to a Nigeria where everyone will have access to technology and utilise it for the growth of the economy”, Olakunle Oloruntimehin added.
According to Cisco, the repair centre is part of its vision to have technology enable inclusion and opportunities for people, wherever they live and whatever their condition.
For more than 20 years, Cisco has invested in educating and upskilling students, graduates and unemployed youth through its Networking Academy (Netacad). Netacad provides students hands-on digital skills to prepare them for careers in the digital economy. Since its launch in 1998, close to 700,000 students participated in Netacad courses throughout the African continent.
This year, the company has set an ambitious goal to train an additional one million students in Africa (including Nigeria) by 2025. The students will be trained during the next three years, followed by reskilling initiatives for active workforce and job seekers, based on content from Cisco Netacad. Through Netacad, Cisco intends to support the creation of Digital Learning Hubs in public libraries, accessible by the local population. The Company also plans to actively engage with employers to identify job opportunities that align to the skills of Netacad students and alumni.
Cisco continues to help society securely connect and seize tomorrow’s digital opportunity today. In November 2018, Cisco opened the first Cisco EDGE Incubation Center in Pretoria, South Africa. In the coming months, Cisco plans to establish a similar centre in Nigeria. EDGE stands for Experience, Design, GTM (Go to Market) and Earn. The objective is to share business knowledge, help develop small and medium businesses in the digital age, speed up their entry to market and, as a result, create new jobs for the local economy.
EDGE Centres function as incubators: they provide small and medium businesses with state-ofthe-art Cisco communication and collaboration technology, alongside training and enablement programs. They specialise in topics that are relevant to the local economy, such as smart ports, IOT in agriculture and smart cities. In addition, small and medium businesses are able to connect with global Cisco experts, who can support them with developing business ideas and concepts.