Japan and UNIDO to build Equipment Operator Training Centre in Uganda
- August 08, 2019
- By Stefan Windberger
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) will establish a training centre for operators of construction equipment in Luwero, Uganda. To this end, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Uganda Kazuaki Kameda and UNIDO Country Representative for Uganda Bruno Otto Tokwiny signed Exchange of Notes on 8 August 2019 at the Ministry of Works and Transport (MoWT), enacting the financial support of the Government of Japan as well as the technical support from Japanese partner Komatsu Ltd.
In recent years, the Government of Uganda has procured road construction and maintenance equipment that were distributed to local district governments across the country; and the new training centre will allow to match the investment in road machinery with an equivalent investment in human resources: within the next three years, the training centre will train at least 50 MoWT instructors, 360 MoWT and local district government operators, and over 80 young Ugandans seeking employment.
The training centre will include Japanese expertise requested to establish a new training curriculum for road construction management and methods – in close collaboration with project partners such as Komatsu and the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports – as well as rely on UNIDO’s long standing expertise in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
The signing ceremony was chaired by Minister of State for Works Edward Katumba Wamala and was attended by project partners, including representatives from the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, the Ministry of Education and Sports, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project supports “Uganda Vision 2040”, and focuses in particular on bridging the skills gap so that building, maintaining and improving the country’s road infrastructure can be done by skilled Ugandans.
For more information, please contact:
Mr. Stavros Papastavrou
Industrial Development Officer