Samsung deal to propel NUL innovation drive

Seabata Mahao

Samsung Electronics and the National University of Lesotho (NUL) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for a strategic partnership under Samsung’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme.

The signing ceremony, which took place last week Friday, also served as the official launch of the Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) at NUL.

Samsung has a similar partnership with Lerotholi Polytechnic.

The SIC programme is targeted at students in higher learning institutions with the main objective of teaching Coding and Programming in Python, Software Development in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Big Data to increase their chances of employability after school.

The programme will provide technical skills that will enable the NUL student community to not only thrive in but also lead in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) with ease.

NUL Vice-Chancellor, Professor Isaac Olusola Fajana, said they believe that the SIC programme will play a crucial role in helping to achieve NUL’s vision of being the leading university in both teaching and research, to provide innovative solutions to societal problems.

“As the university, we, therefore, accept this assignment with both hands, as it reinforces our vision of producing thought leaders. It is through projects such as this one that we remain confident that the university will continue to cement itself as a relevant centre of excellence, and maintain its place in our society both locally and internationally as a place that produces leaders,” he said during the signing ceremony.

“The senior management of the university, NUL stakeholders and captains of industry are part of the rich and vast alumni of this great institution. BS Hong, for this reason, you can now rest assured that this project could not have landed in a better institution.”

Professor Fajana said NUL is a big fish in terms of the number of applications it received yearly and accounts for over 80 percent of the alumni, nationally.

He said since Samsung is also a big fish in its line of business, optimization of synergies should be expected from their collaboration.

On his part, Samsung Africa president and chief executive officer, Hong explained that the SIC programme will not only help develop Lesotho into a major player in the 4IR but also have a stronger and more inclusive economy which, can create further opportunities for growth.

“The SIC aims to provide NUL students from under-served communities an opportunity to gain skills in Coding and Programming, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and Big Data.

“As Samsung – we believe that the future of any country lies in the hands of young people and education allows them to realise their full potential. This partnership will also enable the NUL Faculty of Science and Technology to drive the developmental process of the Lesotho nation.”

Meanwhile, the partnership with NUL comes after Samsung officially re-launched a customer service centre in Maseru last month, to bring the much-needed post-sales support and convenience closer to Lesotho customers.

Located in the Maseru industrial area, the service centre has been rebranded and improved with the latest Samsung technology to give greater access to more customers.

The service centre is a big improvement on the old one, which did not cater for walk-in customers, and was not supporting all Samsung products.

The company also wants to provide direct support for mobile phones that were not there before, which meant customers had to send their devices to South Africa for repairs.

With the move, Samsung also wants to grow the repair environment and create job opportunities in the Lesotho capital.

Besides giving customers support on all Samsung products, the revamped customer service centre gives customers ease of access to any repair work they need as well as improved security, both for themselves and their devices, which now no longer have to travel across the border just to get fixed.

Customers can now drop off and collect their devices as well as have technicians come to their homes to diagnose and fix their large appliances and televisions.