Digital literacy has been the new normal with a bunch of companies and enterprises opening avenues to ensure that their clients and users of their products and services, explore and gain more information about their products and services with ease.

This has seen some companies such as Huawei sign a global commitment to join the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Partner2Connect digital alliance. It is expected that the alliance will bring together around 120 million people in remote areas in over 80 countries by 2025.

In a statement early this week, Huawei Chair Liang Hua said that this bold step was aimed at exploring how ICT innovation could improve the business as well as sustainability in the digital economy.

On his part, ITU Deputy Secretary-General Malcolm Johnson urged for efficient and affordable connectivity and relevant content in the local language. Further, he noted that users must have relevant skills to make use of it which is exactly what Huawei is looking forward to.

The Partner2Connect Digital alliance is a multi-stakeholder alliance launched by ITU in close cooperation with the office of the Secretary- General’s Envoy on Technology and in line with the UN Secretary-General’s roadmap for Digital Cooperation to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation globally, with an aim but not limited to hardest-to-connect communities in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDs).

Cao Ming, President of Huawei Wireless Solution, said that Huawei integrates the full-technology innovation potential of the equipment, sites, energy, transmission, and antennas to address the difficulties traditional site deployments face, such as high costs, restricted transportation, lack of power, and maintenance challenges.

“We have continuously upgraded the RuralStar and RuralLink solutions to extend quality coverage to remote areas, enabling more people, community hospitals, schools, local governments, and small- and medium-sized enterprises to enjoy the same high-speed broadband connectivity experiences as those in cities,” Mr. Cao Ming said in a statement.

“The Partner2Connect Digital Coalition is a game-changing opportunity to take a holistic approach, catalyse new partnerships, and mobilize the resources needed to connect those who are still offline. P2C will open new avenues for stakeholders who understand that collaboration is the only way through which we will ever tackle a challenge of this scale and magnitude. I am calling on all players and partners to join P2C and work together so we can achieve our goal of meaningfully connecting those 2.7 billion people who are still offline,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU.

Huawei has been on the forefront championing for digital literacy in Kenya. In February this year, the company engaged in a mentorship for young ICT professionals by ensuring that they were equipped with the latest skills and competencies in the industry.

The aim was to nurture and cultivate growth and employment of young ICT specialists from universities and colleges. This way, the ICT talent ecosystem blooms.