A Statement by the Chancellor of the Sokoine University of Agriculture Hon. Al Noor Kassum on the Occasion of Inauguration of the Moshi University College of Co-operative and Business Studies (MUCCoBS), 18th March, 2006

Abstract

Your Excellency, President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President 01 the United Republic Tanzania, Minister 101' Higher Education, Science and Technology, Hon. Prol. Peter Msolla (MP), Minister lor Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Hon. Joseph Mungai (MP) Members of Parliament, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner, Hon. Mohammed Babu, Distinguished Leaders and Dignitaries present, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my singular honour and privilege to welcome you all to this auspicious event of the inauguration of the Moshi University College of Co-operative and Business Studies. I am particularly delighted LO welcome, very warmly, Your Excellency Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and thank you for agreeing to be personally present to inaugurate the Moshi University College of Cooperatives and Business Studies. Your Excellency, allow me Lo take this first opportunity to congratulate you personally for your landslide victory in the General Election of December 2005. Everyone can see you have immediately got down to business, with the same seriousness I have known you to do your work from the time we were colleagues in Government. I wish you good health and the wisdom [rom God to show you the way to lead our country to prosperity. Your Excellency, you have appointed the Hon. Prof. Peter Msolla (MP) to become the Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology in your new cabinet. Over the number of years, I have been associated with Sokoine University of Agriculture, I have come to know the Hon. Prof. Msolla as an academician with impressive capabilities. Allow me, Your Excellency, to take this moment to congratulate Hon. Prof. Msolla for his appointment as a member of the cabinet of the fourth Government and to whish health and success in his endeavours. Your Excellency, the occasion the inauguration of Sokoine University of Agriculture on 26th September,1984, the first Chancellor of the University and then President of United Republic of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere made the following statement which I would like to quote: “ This University must be answering the needs, and solving the problems of tanzanian agriculture and rural life. Its aim must be, firstly, to contribute towards improved production and therefore improved standards of living for the people who live and work on the land. And secondly, through that route, as well as through its contribution to national planning, this University must aim at making a major contribution to the economic development of Tanzania." Those words of Mwalimu Nyerere describe the mission statement of the Moshi University College of Cooperative and Business Studies of today, as much as that of the Sokoine University of Agriculture in 1984. It is all about education for self-reliance and poverty eradication, the two critical benchmarks for evaluating the relevance to society, of education being offered by our institutions of Higher Learning. Your Excellency, we all have reason to [eel proud every time we open a new University or Institute of tertiary education. However, the launching of this particular University College marks an important milestone in the history of higher education in Tanzania, on account of the type of training programmes, course structure and student outreach. This University College, that is being inaugurated today, is a truly countrywide training institution. It has training centres in all except three regions in Tanzania Mainland. Its training programmes cut across almost every facet of life of every Tanzanian Rural and Urban, rich and poor, young and old, literate and semi-literate, university graduates and mere primary school leavers. Its trainees do not all have to come to Moshi for training. The trainers often follow the trainees in their home regions or districts. This is made possible through a variety of flexible training methodologies, including distance learning. And I wish to assure you, Your Excellency, that this College is very rich in these methodologies.Your Excellency, the Moshi University College of Cooperative and Business Studies and the Sokoine University of Agriculture complement one another. Both SUA and this College engage in academic discipline whose immediate target beneficiary is the rural population. Whereas SUA deals with sciences and skills pertinent to the main occupation the majority of rural Tanzanians - farming and livestock keeping, this University College specializes in the institutional and business aspects of farming and animal husbandry. Therefore. while SUA at improved methods in farming and livestock keeping. MUCCoBS focuses on improved organizational and management systems of farming as a business in rural communities. The output of these two related institutions should go same wav to improving the human resource supply which will modernize agriculture and livestock sufficiently to be able to respond to the challenges the market driven environment a modernizing economy. Your Excellency, there are many friends this University College whose support has made possible the achievements we are celebrating today. To the donors and to all who have rendered support to this new University College, I wish to take this opportunity to pay a special tribute. It is my hope that they will continue to support the University College, during the period of its growth to maturity and self-reliance. I once again, wish to sincerely thank Your Excellency [or having accepted our invitation to inaugurate the Moshi University College of Co-operative and Business Studies. I also thank the Board Chairman, Management and the entire community of our new University College for inviting me and giving me the privilege to be among the speakers. But, I also commend their efforts for making this event a success. And for all of you who have turned up to witness this important occasion, I say thank you for listening to me so patiently.