On 29 November, the regional Centre of Excellence for Information and Communication Technology in East Africa (CENIT@EA) and IBM entered into a cooperation to jointly build digital skills for the East African Community (EAC).
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Vice Chancellor of the Nelson Mandela African Institution for Science and Technology (NM-AIST) that is hosting CENIT@EA, Prof Emmanuel Luoga, and General Manager of IBM East Africa and Chairman of the East African Business Council (EABC), Nicholas Nesbitt, at the occasion of the EABC Business & Investment Summit in Arusha, Tanzania. The two institutions set out mutually identified areas of interest for this cooperation that include: training, entrepreneurship promotion, internships, collaborative research and publications.
Our cooperation with IBM demonstrates the importance of collaboration between academia and the private sector to support young talent from across the EAC. With the academic quality of a Centre of Excellence and the technology expertise of IBM, CENIT@EA will be able to provide the relevant, targeted and practical skills the EAC needs for its digital transformation.
CENIT@EA is a regional innovation hub dedicated at building digital skills for the industry in the EAC. It currently offers a master program in “Embedded and Mobile Systems” (MSc EMoS) for students from all EAC Partner States. Simultaneously, CENIT@EA offers short trainings for digital skills such as in android mobile app development, cybersecurity, big data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) or digital electronics. Established by the EAC and the German Government, CENIT@EA is implemented in a partnership between the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), and an academic consortium of seven institutions from Germany and East Africa such as NM-AIST and the University of Oldenburg.