By Frederick Philander WINDHOEK The International University of Management (IUM) in Namibia yesterday received a large consignment of learning equipment from the Sandy Branch of the Rotary Club in the United Kingdom. Present at the formal handing-over ceremony was the High Commissioner of Britain in Namibia, Alasdair Macdermott, Director of Higher Education Edna Mbuye and the Manager of Corporate Communications of Air Namibia, Ellison Hijarunguru. A total of 150 computers, printers, scanners and faxes were officially handed over to the chairman of the board of IUM, dr David Namwandi who delivered a speech on behalf of his board. “IUM’s vision is to become a global hub for management science and information technology. However, due to limited resources the institute was experiencing difficulties in implementing its vision because of a shortage of electronic equipment at our four campuses for every student to have access to a computer,” Namwandi said. According to him, the importance of IT in today’s world cannot be over-emphasized. “We are living in times where one is virtually incapacitated without sound computer literacy. It does not matter what discipline a student is pursuing. learning becomes useless if one is not equipped with computer skills. In this light, I am confident that this donation marks a turning point in the service that we will be able to provide to our students and clients at large. With students enrolled from neighbouring countries the donation will have a SADC impact on our activities,” Namwandi said. IUM also received 29 brand-new laptops from an American company, Mckinsey of Atlanta, Georgia. “These laptops will be most useful to our lecturing staff and to our consultancy and research departments. Our deep gratitude goes to Air Namibia for their major contribution in waiving shipping charges of the consignment from Gatwick Airport in the UK to Hosea Kutako International Airport,” the chairman said appreciatively, also thanking the Namibian embassy in Britain, the Rotary Club as well as the ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Director of Higher Education, Edna Mbuye, welcomed the donation on behalf of the ministry of Education. “This donation helps to achieve our goal of transforming Namibia into a knowledge-based society. My ministry supports all such efforts. The provision of higher education is important if we want to move forward and progress. We may not yet be on the same level as European countries, but Namibia is definitely on the same level in education with many other African countries,” Mbuye said.