Former Commerce Minister Prof. Alexandre Lyambabaje has taken over as the new executive secretary of the Inter University Council of East Africa (IUCEA).

With the position being held on a rotational basis, Lyambabaje replaces Tanzania’s Prof. Mayunga Nkunya who has been at the helm of the regional academic organisation since 2010.

At a hand over ceremony held at the IUCEA headquarters in Kampala on Saturday, Nkunya challenged his predecessor to prioritise harmonisation of higher education in the region.

"To me this is the most important agenda that I think still needs a lot of attention to ensure its full implementation. We are now having the common higher education area which should be fully operational,” Nkunya said.

He added that he had played his part in building the organisation’s financial capital from scratch.

"Five years ago we didn’t even have money to pay staff and I worked hard to ask governments of EAC partner states to raise this money,” said Nkunya.

On his part, Lyambabaje pointed out that the region still needs to look at how the curriculum should be re-designed to produce quality graduates.

"We should focus on producing quality graduates that won’t find problems getting employment when they leave the university. Are we good role models to students and are we knowledgeable and motivated enough to produce these graduates,” he said.

Who is Lyambabaje?

Born in 1960, Lyambabaje among other academic qualifications holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Mathematics and a Doctorate in Mathematics from University de Rennes in France.

Lyambabaje has served in different areas in Rwandan government. In 1999, he was appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education.

In 2000 he was appointed as Minister of Commerce, tourism industry, investments promotion and cooperatives a position he held until 2003.

He supervised the formulation of policies for the ministry and in particular Rwanda Tourism Policy.

He also contributed to the regional integration process through active participation in regional ministerial meetings, including East African Community and COMESA meetings.

Since April 2014 to date, he has served as a senior researcher University of Rwanda in the College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

He also served as an Associate Professor of Statistics in the Institute of Applied Sciences Ruhengeri.

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