The Uganda Management Institute (UMI) is set to spend 1.5 million dollars, an equivalent of about 5.1 billion shillings to construct its campus in Gulu district.
In an address to students at the UMI Gulu branch last week, Dr James Nkata, the institute’s Director General said the new centre in Gulu will cater for students in northern Uganda and South Sudan.
“UMI is investing in Gulu district because they want to serve the people of northern Uganda and southern Sudan who are the primary beneficiaries of this project,” said Dr Ntaka.
The UMI office will be located near the office of the Gulu Resident District Commissioner, according to Nkata. Dr Nkata was not specific on when work at UMI’s Gulu office would begin and be completed.
This academic year, UMI has admitted at its Gulu centre 197 students for postgraduate programmes in Human resource management, project planning and management, monitoring and evaluation and public administration and management.
“While you’re here [UMI], you are not a CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) nor DEO (District Education Officer) or a commissioner of police. Here you are a participant. In a classroom, your titles are useless. Once you perceive yourselves as a high profile, you will not be able to fit in the UMI environment,” the UMI Director General counseled in an address to the new students.
This academic year, the institute has awarded 10 scholarships to students from northern Uganda.
UMI was officially opened in October 1969. Then it was known as the Uganda Institute of Public Administration. The institution is government owned and focuses on training in management, research and consultancy, among others.
By Mildred Auma
