Maher El-Adawy, Ambassador of Egypt to Malawi met today Friday 28 July 2017 with Mr. Anthony Muyepa, director general of NCST (National Commission for Science and Technology) as the director was introducing four Malawian students (Miss. Chifundo Kansungwi from Chiradzulu, Miss. Bless Nthambo from Chitipa, Mr. Benjamin Malema from Karonga and Mr. Osward Sikanda from Karonga) that have been awarded University Scholarships to study at Sinai University in Egypt starting from the 2017/18 academic year. They will be travelling at the end of August this year.
The National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) through its linkage with COMESA secured the scholarships for Undergraduate courses in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Industries; Dentistry, Information Communication Technology and Computer Science at the Sinai University in Egypt.
Through the facilitation of COMESA, NCST established a platform of scientific cooperation with the Peoples Republic of Egypt in the fields of research and development, science, innovation and technology among others.
Through this scientific collaboration, Malawians have been trained in science, technology and innovation studies in Egypt. In December 2016, 3 Malawians were awarded scholarships to study Nanotechnology, an emerging field that has potential to create jobs and increase Malawi’s export products.
The National Commission for Science and Technology is the Malawi’s statutory body mandated to advise Government and other stakeholders on all science and technology matters in order to achieve a science and technology led development, it also strives to promote, support, co-ordinate and regulate the development and application of research, science, technology and innovation in order to create wealth and improve the quality of life. The mandate and the mission of the commission encompass a number of specific functions as prescribed in the Science & Technonlogy Act under which the Commission was established. In his remarks, the Director General of NCST, Anthony Muyepa-Phiri was pleased to note the support from the people’s republic of Egypt, which he appreciated to be a vehicle towards realizing the mandate and mission of the Commission. He noted that it is imperative that Malawi prepares a generation of well trained scientists who will address some of the developmental challenges that Malawi faces in the Science, Technology and Innovation field.
His Excellency the Egyptian ambassador to Malawi, Maher El-Adawy was very pleased that his Government is contributing towards building human capacity development of Malawi in the Science and Technology fields. He noted that building a critical mass of qualified and relevant human capacity in science and technology is critical to accelerate Malawi’s social and economic development.