Chinese telecom giant Huawei is offering an orientation program on basic knowledge of information and communications technology (ICT) for Nigerian women, the company announced here Monday.

Launched in cooperation with Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Communication Technology (FMCT), the program is aimed at providing Nigerian women who are willing to explore their careers in the ICT industry with free short-term training and internships.

The training will be done in Huawei ICT Training Center in Abuja and Huawei Exhibition Hall in Lagos, with about 1,000 female university students expected to benefit from the one-year program.

"The program was part of Huawei's commitment of localization, technology transfer to Nigeria and employment promotion," said Hover Gao, vice president of Huawei West Africa.

Huawei and FMCT will develop this program into a long-term project, he said, adding that "the training also enables us to create an ICT talent pool and some of the trainees will become Huawei employees."

The FMCT expressed its appreciation of Huawei's program, saying it hopes it would attract more Nigerian females into the ICT industry.

Liu Xianfa, China's consul-general in Lagos, and representatives of Nigeria's Ministry of Women Affairs attended the event.

In 2004, Huawei became the first ICT solutions provider to establish an ICT training center in Abuja, capital of Nigeria. Since then the center has trained more than 5,000 ICT practitioners.