EAC to collaborate with the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) to enhance the Community’s Science and Technology Strategy
Amb. Dr Richard Sezibera, Secretary-General of the East African Community (EAC) yesterday paid a courtesy visit to the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST). He was accompanied by Mr Aloysius Chebet, EAC Principal Education Officer and Ms Alice Maro, EAC Communications Expert.
At the occasion, Prof. Burton Mwamila, NM-AIST Vice Chancellor, expressed his gratitude to the Secretary-General for taking time off his busy schedule to visit to the Institution. After his opening remarks, 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.
During his keynote address, Amb. Sezibera commended the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania for investing in the establishment of the Institution.
He further urged leaders of other EAC Partner States to also support NM-AIST, so as to “further develop it into 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”.
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 attributes 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 (R&D). Only three countries in Africa spend one percent of their GDP on R&D: Uganda, Malawi and South Africa.
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.