Addis Ababa University and Ethio Telecom signed an agreement to launch Telecommunications Engineering program at Masters level in a ceremony held at Hilton Hotel on March 28, 2016.

Sponsored by Ethio Telecom, the ceremony was held in the presence of high government officials and senior management of the two parties.

The agreement between Addis Ababa Institute of Technology and Ethio Telecom will be active for a duration of three years and shall be prolonged with subsequent renewal possible for additional years. 50 – 100 Ethio Telecom workers with engineering backgrounds will be admitted during the first phase of the program with possible admission of students from other sectors to follow. The agreement is intended to build capacity of human resources deployed in the sector.

CEO of Ethio Telecom, Andualem Admase, pointed out that the telecom service provider is under extensive expansion and is working diligently to ever improve its service and coverage in order to connect the community with updated information. He went on to explain that sustaining the overall economic growth calls for highly skilled man power both in quality and quantity.

Debretsion G/Michael, Economy Cluster Coordinator with Deputy Prime Minister Portfolio and Minister of Communications and Information Technology, for his part said that the government has paid due attention to raising network capacity and improving service quality and customer satisfaction. He added that the agreement contributes to efforts towards linking higher institutions with industries in addition to tackling the problem of lack of skilled manpower in the sector.

The Telecommunications Engineering program is going to be launched at Masters level in the coming 2016/17 academic year in two fields of studies: Telecommunications Networking Engineering and Telecommunications Information System. Students joining Telecommunications Networking Engineering will specialize in theory, design and telecommunication systems modeling of wireless and wired technologies while Telecommunication Information System deals with design, maintenance, Telecommunication System Administration and Security.

Admasu Tsegaye (PhD), AAU President, and Andualem Admase, Ethio Telecom CEO, signed the agreement on behalf of Addis Ababa University and Ethio Telecom respectively.