Sub-Saharan Africa has natural resources that aids the development of renewable energy, it has lots of sun, plentiful wind, and much potentially sustainable biomass. With the development of small-scale affordable renewable energy technologies, such systems have been promoted by major aid agencies keen to prevent deforestation and excessive reliance on fossil fuels, that – even where they are plentiful, have not usually led to widespread economic development.

African universities must undertake strategic collaborations, boost innovation and develop entrepreneurial initiatives, targeting the needs of students to remain relevant in the future, a higher education conference in Nigeria has been told. These concerns formed the core of discussions when public and private sector tertiary education experts gathered over Zoom and in-person in Lagos to discuss the future of African universities at the second edition of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) International Week conference.…

THE NEED for a proactive effort to improve the teaching and researching of physics in sub-Saharan Africa, as a foundation for critically important scientific work, has been highlighted in a new report from the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the UK-based Institute of Physics (IOP).…

Malawi, one the world’s largest producer of burley leaf tobacco, is making significant efforts to reduce child labour within its tobacco left sector, but the problem is still endemic.

A key sensitivity is that Malawi’s economy heavily relies on tobacco leaf, which contributes to 52% of the total export value for the country, according to the Malawi ministry of finance 2020 annual economic report.…

Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has been honoured as a ‘Champion of Higher Education in Africa’ by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM).

This consortium of 129 African universities within 38 countries said it decided to honour President Chakwera for his government’s efforts in promoting inclusive higher education in Malawi and in other African countries.…

The delinking of Malawi’s oldest institution of higher learning, the University of Malawi (UNIMA) into three separate universities has been accomplished, 11 years after former President Bingu wa Mutharika mooted the idea to UNIMA Council in 2009.

Mutharika only managed to delink Bunda College in 2011 to create Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) before his death in 2012 and his successor President Joyce Banda shelved the process.…

Mozambique’s tobacco leaf and processing sector is facing tough times. Cyclones such as this January’s Eloise, and Idai in 2019 have wreaked significant damage on tobacco plantations. Covid-19 has caused processing disruption and harmed legitimate distribution, encouraging an increase in black market cigarette sales.…

Malawi’s higher education may have suffered through Covid-19, but the pandemic has encouraged efforts to build online and distance learning (ODL) operating through special satellite centres run by universities and colleges.

Out of Malawi’s 19 tertiary institutions, five have made serious progress in such services, with Mzuzu University, in northern Malawi, leading the way, pioneering ODL in 2006, when the institution was just eight years old.…

The Malawi government has ordered the ruling council of the University of Malawi (UNIMA) to push ahead with delinking its constituent colleges, despite the project being suspended on January 20.

The council voted on that day to suspend the creation of independent universities from its colleges, claiming that a 2017 decision authorising the process was not in line with Malawi law at the time and hence ‘ultra vires’.…

A University of Malawi (UNIMA) Council’s decision to suspend a planned delinking of the university’s constituent colleges into independent universities has generated fears that the plan – hatched over six years ago – will ultimately be frustrated. After a consultative process President Lazarus Chakwera, last November, last year had given assent to a final bill on the delinking of UNIMA.…