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Home / Germany funds new wing at Ongwediva engineering campus
Germany funds new wing at Ongwediva engineering campus
2017-09-12Staff Report 2 Nuusita Ashipala Ongwediva-Namibia continues to benefit from the Namibia-German bilateral cooperation, which this time boosted the education sector when it co-funded the third wing of the five-star-shaped University of Namibia’s (Unam) José Eduardo dos Santos Engineering campus and two training workshops. The third wing costing over N$300 million was co-funded by the German government through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and KfW Development Bank, as well as the Namibian government. The inauguration of the Unam’s third wing on Monday will be followed by another inauguration of the newly constructed park management station at Nkasa Rupara National Park, as well as an awards ceremony this week of the architectural competition for the construction of a new Department of Natural Resources Management at the Katima Mulilo campus. At the inauguration, Minister of Higher Education, Training and Innovation Itah Kandjii-Murangi was content that infrastructural construction is trickling down to curriculum development, thereby ensuring quality education that can be benchmarked to the best globally. Kandjii-Murangi acknowledged that German government support was not only confined to the education sector, but was further helping the Namibian government to advance its development agenda. “I wish to express our sincere appreciation for this generous support, aimed at strengthening and accelerating Namibia’s human and institutional capacity development,” said Kandjii-Murangi. The minister appealed to the staff at the campus to ensure the quality of programmes are top-notch. “As a country and as a government we know that knowledge knows no boundaries. But where we are with our development it is important that the mass we produce in some of these critical fields will tame them and use them prudently at home,” Kandjii-Murangi said. Ambassador of Germany to Namibia Christian Schlaga related that together with Germany’s relentless support for vocational training, the funding of the wing is the best contribution to professional empowerment young Namibians can think of. “Those who will have graduated will have created a solid foundation for their future lives through self-empowerment. From now on they can contribute to the development of their country with their own determination, creativity and ingenuity,” Schlaga said. Speaking at the same event, the founding dean at the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Frank Kavishe, revealed that there are still savings from the third wing, which will be used to construct a third training workshop. In addition, Kavishe said the construction of a student hostel that can accommodate 300 students and a cafeteria will commence early next year, pending an additional grant from the German government of over N$70 million. The inauguration this week was attended by a delegation from Germany. 2017-09-12Staff Report 2
