KIST was set up in 1997 to serve as a center
of excellence in science, technology and Management.
Five years after its creation, has KIST managed
to fulfill this ambition?
A great deal has already been achieved in such
a short time. We have graduated students at different
levels -Certificate and Diploma and we have just
held our first Graduation Ceremony, when a total
of 463 part time and full time students were awarded
diplomas and degrees.
We are cooperating with a number of institutions
within the sub region. We have sent our students
to the National University of Rwanda, to Makerere
University in Uganda and this year to Jomo Kenyatta
University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya
- for practical work. We have signed a number
of important MOU's with International Institutions
and we have recently been accepted as a UNESCO
Centre for Engineering Education in Africa.
We started part time courses in adult education,
which have been very popular, We have good technologies,
which we are now transferring to the rural areas
to help the rural population. We have developed
Internet access and now we are providing Internet
services to a number of people, organisations,
industries etc.
However, we have not yet managed to fulfill completely
our ambitions. Mainly because we met obstacles
that had not been anticipated. The major objective
was to set up a practical oriented institution.
Therefore this called for very good workshops,
very good laboratories and these cost a lot of
money. Different donor agencies like the UNDP
and friendly countries such as Japan and the Netherlands
came to our assistance - but not as much as we
had expected and this posed a constraint on providing
the facilities we needed.
You were talking about the achievements of
your institution in income generation for self-sustainability.
Was this part of your initiative?
Yes, because my experience in the management
of higher institutions of learning has been since
1975 when I was in Tanzania, then went to Nigeria
and now here. I have seen institutions in Africa,
which produce graduates in computer science without
ever touching a keyboard because they cannot afford
a computer. I have seen institutions where the
professors themselves buy their own chalk because
the institution cannot afford to buy it.
So here, we realized that we had to generate
our own income. We are the only institution that
started charging tuition fees on students who
were coming on regular courses. Secondly we started
this part time training program and now we are
getting 1300 evening students. There's quite a
lot that we have done in terms of generating our
own resources.
Now there's something very important - we have
ventured into a Bureau of consultancy services.
Institutions like the Ministry of Public Works,
Transport and Communication which deal with road
network, Ministry of Energy and many institutions
attract international funding for certain projects.
Unfortunately these cannot utilize funding unless
they undertake studies. The brains of technology
and management are concentrated here at KIST.
So why not use them to do these studies?
So we are now enhancing our consultancy bureau
and this will allow us to do a number of studies
and we generate income out of it.
So when did you start with this initiative?
I think immediately in 1998 when we started a
small consultancy with NGOs like world vision
and some government institutions.
Did you also target local companies?
Yes, with companies like Bralirwa and then Banque
Commerciale du Rwanda (BCR). We also did some
work with Bank of Commerce, Development and Industry
(BCDI). This we believe will empower our students
to know what is happening in the outside world
and how exactly consultancy work is done. It is
a very big input.
Your students are modeled to be an asset of
the Rwandan private sector and the region as a
whole. What kind of relationship do you enjoy
with the private sector?
We want to work with the private sector very
closely. We believe that these people in the private
sector are role models for our students.
Secondly what we are doing here is entirely for
both the public and the private sectors. In fact,
we did convince the government to pick successful
people in the private sector to be part of our
governing council and this has been very successful.
We believe they can guide us in our activities
here.
The private sector can also play a key role in
the development of the curriculum. It is important
to involve the private sector in the development
of our curriculum in order to make it relevant
and appropriate to their demands.
We also believe that the private sector can assist
in funding some of our courses. They can help
in buying equipment for certain faculties and
actually we are trying to broaden our cooperation
in a number of ways. Some like Bralirwa could
also allow us access their laboratories and workshops.
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We are looking for ways of forming joint ventures.
We have a lot of expertise in different fields.
For example, look at the Internet provision itself.
This is a joint venture between KIST and MTN Rwandacell.
Rwanda is set to be an ICT icon in the region.
This will require a number of computers for primary
and secondary schools. Purchasing these computers
itself is very expensive but maintaining and upgrading
them is also another expensive thing. The expertise
for maintenance is available at KIST. This is
also another field we hope to cooperate in with
the private sector. Generally we are looking at
possibilities for forming firm joint venture with
the private sector for assembling and maintaining
computers.
You mentioned hiring a lot of expertise to
help in training your students. Do you think in
the short run you will be able to substitute expatriates
with locals?
Currently we have 115 academic staff who are
Rwandans. Only six Rwandans have a PhD. We are
seriously mobilizing resources from government
and the private in cooperation with different
universities all over the world to have our staff
trained up to PhD. Already some 27 are away on
staff training. While we do not have full complement
of our own staff we have no choice but to engage
expatriates.
KIST is preparing for the first graduation
ceremony, what is going to be your message to
your first graduates?
Well the message to our first graduates will
be that as far as possible they should be self-reliant.
The idea of starting up this institution was to
equip our students with skills that should be
used to create their own employment and we are
ready to assist them.
We have technologies here, which we are training
our students to transfer to the rural economies.
We are putting in place the Centre for Promotion
of Technology Transfer - this idea is to be supported
by DFID putting up a $2.5 million scheme.
At the same time we are starting a centre called
the Centre for Technology and Business Innovation.
The whole idea is that government or private sector
cannot employ all of our graduating students.
So we want we want to equip these people with
entreprenuership skills, how to access funds,
how to develop ideas and also show them marketing
skills.
We have presented a project proposal for support
concerning this idea to the Government of Germany.
The good thing is that quite a number of our
graduates have had experience from our cottage
industries, and our workshop. I believe they have
acquired a lot of experience that could be beneficial.
The government has also set up a $ 5 million donor
fund under the ministry of Finance to give small
loans to people like our students. So, I think
they can depend on themselves; they don't have
to cry for employment from government or any one
else.
How do you deal with the issue of channeling
your graduates to the rural economies?
We are trying to link up with the rural areas
through the Centre for Innovation and Technology
Transfer and through what we call community attachment.
The curriculum provides for this already. The
attachment programme exposes the students to what
kind of problems the rural community faces and
the kind of help they need.
Finally, you mentioned that you were in Tanzania,
Nigeria, and UK and also we know that you are
a member of the UNESCO board. Can you give us
a brief professional background of yourself?
I was born in Tanzania and grew up there. When
I finished my secondary school education, I was
one of the lucky people to get a scholarship from
a number of countries including Sweden, Nairobi,
Canada and the UK. I picked the one to the UK
and when I finished my first degree from Leeds
University, I was again offered an opportunity
by the same university to do a Ph.D, so I went
straight for the Ph.D.
From there I joined the University of Dar- es-
Salaam in the Faculty of Engineering where I rose
through different ranks up to a level of dean
of Faculty of Technology. I worked with this university
for 10 years before proceeding to Nigeria. So
I was in Nigeria busy training Engineers from
all over Africa for about 12 years and then the
government here called me to start this institution
in October 1997. Here we are, and things are moving.
I also belong to a number of organisations like
the International Association of University Presidents
where I sit on the council for Africa. I am a
member of the Executive Board of UNESCO. In Tanzania,
I was a member of the board of over 15 institutions
and organisations. Here in Rwanda, I am the president
of the Association of Engineers, Chairman of the
Board of Rwandatel. I am also a member of various
national commissions on Economic Affairs, Information
& Communication Technology, Human Resource
Development, and Higher Education etc.
NB : Winne shall not be responsible for unedited
transcriptions
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