A three-day working visit by a delegation from the Bandari College of Tanzania Port Authority (TPABC) to the Regional Maritime University (RMU) ended in Accra on Wednesday.

The three-member delegation was led by the Director, Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) and Principal,TPABC, Dr Lufunyo Hussein with the Ag. Deputy Director for Academic, Research and Consultancy, Mr Franco Mwakatage and Principal Instructor, TPABC, Dr Olivary John as other members of the delegation.

The visit forms part of TPABC’s reforms activities spearheaded by forming strategic partnerships to ensure that they become more competitive and efficient to meet growing demands of the maritime industry.

Management of the RMU led by the Ag. Vice Chancellor, Dr Jethro W. Brooks Jr. welcomed the delegation and began discussions leading to the formation of a strong partnership that would foster growth within the institutions.

In his presentation, Dr Hussein explained that the TPA and for that matter, the college since 2020 initiated reform activities and recognised the RMU as a relevant partner to assist in their transformative agenda.

Ultimately, he said they would be working together in areas of capacity building, instructors exchange, shared experience and research among others to improve upon their visibility and progress.

In his welcome address, Dr Brooks Jr. said they were pleased to receive the delegation from Tanzania adding that it had always been a desire to foster collaborations between institutions within the continent.

He added that it was important for institutions in Africa to collaborate and work towards addressing challenges and institutional demands of the continent.

He said working together in research and knowledge sharing was essential to the growth of the maritime industry which has become vital as far as development in most parts of the world is concerned.

Dr Brooks Jr also announced that a committee would be constituted comprising members of both institutions to among other things, initiate steps towards signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in June to formalise the partnership.

There was also a presentation by the RMU Provost, Dr Denis Atehnijia Njumo on the structure, mission and vision, courses and programmes, projects and other relevant units of the RMU.

The team also toured RMU’S facilities after which Ag. Deputy Director for Academic, Research and Consultancy, Mr Franco Mwakatage praised the RMU for their state-of-the-art infrastructure and very competent technicians for their workshops.

He said some of the stimulators were very new to them and certainly with the available infrastructure, the RMU was positioned to produce quality graduates for the maritime industry.

By Michael D. Abayateye