Speaking after paying a courtesy visit to the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) recently, Dr Sezibera urged other countries to emulate Tanzania’s example.
The Secretary General who was accompanied by EAC Principle Education Officer Mr. Aloysius Chebet, and Ms. Alice Maro, EAC Communications Expert said there was urge to develop such an institution.
“We need such a regional hub where brilliant and great minds of East African sons and daughters can experiment and transform their innovative ideas into real solutions and products for the economic transformation of the region and the continent at large” he said.
At the occasion, Prof. Burton Mwamila, NN-AIST Vice Chancellor, expressed his gratitude to the Secretary General for taking time off his busy schedule to visit to the Institution.
Prof. Mwamila gave an overview presentation on NM-AIST to the EAC delegates, and some 150 attendees comprising of NM-AIST faculty staff members and students.
Further into his speech, the Secretary General talked about alarming numbers of science and engineering graduates in Africa, currently standing at 35 scientists and engineers per million inhabitants.
He attributed this low figure to the ever-growing brain drain of the well-educated and skilled populations, as well as to the low GDP spending by African governments on Research and Development.
The Secretary General was taken on a campus tour of NM-AIST where he visited the laboratory complex to further identify areas of collaboration for the two institutions.
NM-AIST, based in Arusha, Tanzania, is in a network of Pan-African Institutions of Science and Technology located across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
These instituions which are the proud brainchild of the late President Nelson Mandela, envision training and developing the next generation of African scientists and engineers with a view of impacting on the continent’s development through the application of science, engineering and technology (SET).
Accredited by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), NM-AIST currently offers eight Master’s and PhD Programmes in Life Sciences (LiSE); Bio-engineering (BioE); Mathematical and Computer Science and Engineering (MCSE).
Others are Information and Communication Science and Engineering (ICSE); Materials Science and Engineering (MaSE); Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering (HWRE); Environmental Science and Engineering (EnSE) and Sustainable Energy Science and Engineering (SESE).
DAILY NEWS
Leave a Reply