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Young Africans receive US$500,000 scholarship funding

Accra, Feb. 6, GNA –
General Electric (NYSE:GE) and the Africa Leadership University (ALU) have
announced the commencement of the third cohort of the Africa Industrial
Internet Programme(AIIP) aimed at equipping young Africans with skills to
enable them to actively participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The 2020 cohort has
enrolled 35 students from eight countries in Africa, drawn from oil and gas,
transportation, power, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunication and
aviation industries.

Over the last two
years, 64 students had graduated after undergoing rigorous training programme
of which 50 were fully sponsored by the General Electric from a scholarship
fund totalling US$500,000.00

General Electric
will give 10 full scholarships for the current cohort.

The programme,
launched in 2018, has empowered participants with essential skills for building
applications for the Industrial Internet, which enables machine-to-machine
communication that results in systems that can collect, analyse and deliver
data in real-time.

These features
provide significant benefits such as predicting when a device will require
maintenance, enhancing logistics management, enhancing quality and optimizing
safety.

The training takes
place at a time when spending on the Internet of things is predicted to reach a
trillion US dollars by 2025, with the total number of connected devices being
projected to rise to 75.44 billion worldwide by 2025, a fivefold increase in
ten years.

Commenting on the
Programme, Mr Farid Fezoua, the President and CEO of General Electric in charge
of Africa, said being a digital industrial company, it was exciting seeing the
AIIP developed an ecosystem of digital engineers, utilising data science as an
enabler for their work across industries and developing solutions for most
pressing challenges.

“Our
partnership with ALU for the AIIP is a testament of our commitment to develop
the next generation of leaders that will drive solutions made in Africa for
Africa in this transformative digital age,” he added.

The AIIP is designed
using a project-based approach where participants get to apply their learning
in real world situations.

The Programme
included regular assessments in each module culminating with a final project
where participants apply their learning to solve an existing problem either in
their business or in a partner organization’s business operations.

This is achieved
through modules in machine learning and big data analytics, Industrial Internet
of Things and Cloud-based Application Development.

A unique aspect of
the Programme is a deliberate focus on creating links to industry for
participants by inviting industry experts to intensives, in order to share case
studies, projects of interest, trends and opportunities, through industry field
visits and mentorship opportunities with data science professionals.

“African Leadership
Group is thrilled to be partnering with GE to build a new generation of digital
leaders for Africa” said Mr Fred Swaniker, Founder of African Leadership Group,
which includes African Leadership Academy, African Leadership University, and
ALX.

“We share GE’s
passion for data, and what it can bring to the African continent and the
world”.

The Programme
enables mid-career engineers to build new skills in data analytics, data
science, data engineering and data visualization by leveraging the power of
data.

Engineers can
significantly improve the performance of high-tech industrial machinery and
processes, thereby increasing the bottom line for companies.

The Africa Industrial
Internet Programme is creating globally competitive, digital engineers right
here in Africa, and we can’t wait to see their full impact on the continent”.

In 2019, five female
candidates from Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria received the Jay Ireland Africa
Rising Scholarship for women in tech in honour of GE Africa’s former CEO, Jay
Ireland.

Speaking about her
experience with the programme, Mr Funmi Somoye, a 2019 cohort graduate from
Nigeria said, “More than Machine Learning and Data Science, I have learned more
about myself, and what I am capable of doing. I can’t wait to change the
world’.

GNA

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