Cisco, Anambra State to launch 21 academies

Cisco Nigeria has concluded plans with the Anambra State government to open 21 Cisco Academies in the State.

Disclosing this, Marketing Manager, Cisco Nigeria, Ms Owen Nwelih, said that Nigeria currently has over 50 academies and has advanced plans to increase this with the recent deal by the Anambra State.

Nwelih who made this disclosure at a media parley in Lagos, weekend, said that Anambra State has begun the processes to establish Cisco academy in its domain at the Eastern Nigeria, just as some are expected to spring up in Adamawa.

Affirming this deal, Cisco Networking Academy Manager for West Africa, Mr. Julius Ayuk-Tabe, told ITRealms Online in a telephone chat that the coast is now clear for Anambra State to establish in each of the 21 local government areas with a Cisco Academy.

Ayuk-Tabe also revealed that the official launch of the Cisco Academy in Anambra would be held in the state capital, Awka before the end of this month – February.

“It would be performed before the end of this month,” he said.

ITRealms Online recalls that last year, 2007, Cisco Systems had unveiled Partner Talent Portal to address technology skills shortage on the continent and Middle East also known as MEA.

The company said this was part of its continued effort at helping channel partners to address the global technology skills gap, through provision of access to local Cisco Network Academy graduates and Cisco certified talents.

The portal, Ayuk-Tabe said, comes with features on curricula vitae and profiles of local Cisco Network Academy graduates to help facilitate the connection between
Cisco channel partners and this proven talent pool.

He further said that a study commissioned by Cisco in 2007 and conducted by industry analyst firm, IDC, revealed that the demand for networking skills in the UAE alone was set to exceed supply by an average of 27 per cent in 2009.

“This translates into a shortage of more than 19,000 skilled people,” he said.

Mr. Ayuk-Tabe also said that this portal which is already live and accessible to Cisco partners in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia, provides partners with a fast and effective way to find qualified candidates while allowing for a much-needed inflow of talent into the overall industry.

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