Manumetal, a local furniture manufacturing firm, recently signed a knowledge transfer partnership with Kigali Institution of Technology to develop an efficient home-grown human resource force. Robert Bayigamba, the Director General of Manumetal welcomed the deal saying it was a significant breakthrough in developing local capacity. “This is an important day of creating a link with a higher education institution that will make it possible to transfer knowledge from the institution to an industry to improve quality, design and cost of production,” Bayigamba said. “The Industry will employ fresh graduates from KIST to bring their skills and transform it into practical use and thus gain more experience.” Rosemary Kyokunda Ford, a Consultant with Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) at the institution said that experts from Strathclyde University in Scotland will be sent to KIST to train a selected group of lecturers. The lecturers will then facilitate other trainees in short courses. The same group of experts will provide capacity building to staff at Manumetal. Bayigamba said that the training will enable his company to compete globally. During an interview, Abraham Atta Ogwu, the Rector of KIST welcomed the partnership agreement saying that it will facilitate the increase of practical knowledge among the students. Ends
