Chinese telecommunications company Huawei will open a centre to train sector professionals in Angola.

Huawei said expected growth in Africa’s telecommunication sector had led the company to open the training sector in Angola. 

The company expects a turnover of about US$2billion in Africa this year, compared with US$1.6 billion in 2007.

The managing director for sub-Saharan Africa, Bo Xue, said there is a need to find technically trained people to work with wireless WiMax and fourth generation networks, to meet market demand. “Getting these technicians from China or Europe would be the short term solution. The sustainable and long term solution is to invest in training local technicians.” 

“The centres also make it possible for us to transfer knowledge and qualifications to our partners about new generation networks, thus overcoming the lack of technical staff and engineers in Angola,” he said.

The Angolan centre will be the sixth in Africa, after Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Kenya and South Africa.