The World Bank Group is set to establish a total of 22 African Centers of Excellence for Eastern and Southern Africa in the existing institutions of higher learning.
The move is aimed at addressing the prevailing gap in human resource personnel in the region.
The $122million Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence project is a partnership between the WBG and the Inter University Council for East Africa.
Mayunga Nkunya, the councils’ executive secretary, says the five year project will train doctoral students, putting special emphasis on higher institutions engaged in the extractive industry.
The development comes amid commercialisation of Uganda’s oil and gas resources which is expected to generate up to 150,000 indirect and direct jobs and thousands of opportunities for the oil and gas industry suppliers.
However, the country currently has only one training institute, the Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba, preparing Uganda for the oil service industry.
The project will be officially launched in May next year, when programs will kick start in the selected institutions.
