Women Slowly Closing in the Tech Ecosystem, Huawei

Today, Information Communications Technology (ICT) is the backbone driving the prosperity of nations and organization, inspiring a better living for people across the globe. Since the Introduction of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s, this sector has been dominated by mostly men worldwide.

However, no development is one sided if leaves out the participation of all gender. And increased women participation in the tech ecosystem in this decade can be inspired by innovation driven startups and enrollment for ICT education.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2011 marked the last Thursday of April as a day dedicated to celebrating girls in ICT worldwide. Over 9,000 celebrations attracted 300,000 women participants by 2018, and today we celebrate the women that have broad passion for technology and continue growing while excelling in ICT.

Notably, Huawei in particular is skilling and empowering women in ICT through their various skilling initiatives which include; Huawei Seeds for the future, Huawei ICT competition, and Huawei ICT Academy as well as offering employment.

“We take pride in seeing women prosper and flourish in ICT through our several initiatives,” says Huawei.

Bringing to your attention a great success and inspirational story of Ms. Cleopatra Ajambo who has grown with the company in a space of one year from just an intern to a team leader and to a manager.

Ajambo, participated in the 2018 Huawei Seeds for the future program and through the competition she changed her life from just a Computer Science Student to an IT networks architect working with Huawei Uganda.

“As a computer science student, you were expected to dig deep into programming as a major which was not, and is not most girls’ passion, so I found myself relying more on getting good grades than building a career as a problem solver,” says Ajambo, whose goal for joining the Seeds for future competition was to travel to China for exposure.

Amidst stiff competition, Ajambo qualified for the national round after drafting a project proposal on how ICT can be leveraged to help people with chronic diseases remotely get access to doctors by using their smartphones.

She wrote a proposal addressing people having chronic diseases and through the use of gadgets and networks, their health would be actively monitored remotely by the doctors.

Among the successful women in Uganda leveraging ICT to lead and solve real-life problems in previously men dominated positions include the Minister of ICT and National Guidance Ms. Judith Nabakooba, and the recently appointed UCC Executive Director Ms. Irene Sewakambo Kaggwa, among others.

As women continue to rise in the ICT Industry, the role of ICT companies and Government support to nurture girls through quality ICT education and skill competitions respectively, will bring a fair balance in an industry that was once known to be dominated by men.