A ray of light for José Eduardo dos Santos campus

A ray of light for José Eduardo dos Santos campus The German government donated five million Euros for the construction of a 250-bed student hostel block at the campus. Desiree Gases





At the heart of Namibia's northern regions, which collectively account for about 60% of Namibia's population, lies the José Eduardo dos Santos campus. This is just one of the 12 campuses of the University of Namibia which are spread all over the country. The campus is situated in Ongwediva in the Oshana Region, about 725 km to the north west of Windhoek. The campus was founded in 2009 after the government of Namibia approved funds for the construction of phase one a year earlier. On 17 April 2009, Sam Nujoma, the founding father of the nation, inaugurated the first students’ hostel.

The ground-breaking generosity of the government of Germany shared their resources to support the Namibian educational system. The German government donated five million Euros (8774621,93 Namibian dollars) for the construction of a 250-bed student hostel block at the campus.

“This donation will go a long way in providing accommodation for students and ensuring that the campus is mainly focused on being at the forefront of science, technology and innovation,” said the governor of the Oshana region, Elia Irimari.

He further added that it brings ease to the educator knowing that the student does not have to worry about shelter. Unam has over the years in exceptional ways benefitted from the support of the German government in the form of infrastructure.

“It fills me with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction to stand here in front of you today for the ground-breaking of the students’ hostels,” said Herbert Beck, Ambassador of Germany to Namibia.

Since 2012, Germany has provided significant support via their financial and technical co-operation for the construction and establishment of the department of civil and environmental engineering at Unam’s faculty of engineering and information technology - both for software and hardware.

“The German development bank has not only provided eight million Euros for the construction of the so-called German wing at the Unam campus in Ongwediva. This project was implemented by KFW together with the University of Namibia,” Beck said.

The ambassador, who was visiting the campus for the first time, toured the famous German wing and had an opportunity to inspect the laboratory equipment donated by GIZ.

Nangolo Mbumba (vice president of Namibia) congratulated the vice-chancellor of Unam, Kenneth Matengu for his great vision and determination to expand the various training programmes, establishing collaborations that contributed to infrastructure and development of various Unam campuses. “I would also like to appeal to our engineering students and their lecturers, especially those representing here through SRC, to cherish the magnificent facilities at their disposal,” he concluded.