Kibo invests in future workforce with new classrooms

Tanzania-focussed mineral exploration and development company Kibo Mining announced on Monday that its CEO had officially unveiled and handed over two newly built classrooms to the Regional Commissioner of Songwe, Tanzania, on 3 March.

The AIM-traded firm said the classrooms were part of an ongoing joint programme by Kibo and the towns of Meheza and Namkukwe, directly northeast of the Mbeya Coal to Power Project in the Songwe Region in South Western Tanzania, to extend and refurbish the local schools at the respective towns.

“While addressing the assembled communities of Meheza and Namkukwe during the unveiling ceremony, [CEO Louis] Coetzee stressed the critical importance of education, which is the only foundation on which long term sustainable development can be based,” Kibo’s board explained in a statement.

“He further stressed the important role the MCPP should and can play as a major enabler in the development of the Tanzanian economy and more specifically of the Songwe region.”

The MCPP would, during construction and later during production, provide a significant number of direct and indirect job opportunities and would primarily be looking at the Songwe region to provide those labour requirements, according to the board.

“To ensure that this is achieved and sustained over the long term, significant investment in quality education and education infrastructure will be required.

“To this effect, the Meheza and Namkukwe communities, of which Kibo is a proud member, has developed a long term education strategy that will improve and expand local education and education infrastructure, to ensure that future education is delivered at the qualitative and quantitative standards that will be required in a fast growing regional and national economy.”

Building the classrooms at Meheza and Namkukwe was the first tangible delivery towards successful implementation of this education strategy, Kibo explained.

“Whilst welcoming Kibo into the communities of Namkukwe and Meheza, Songwe Regional Commissioner Chiku Gallawa urged Meheza and Namkukwe to embrace and support the project as a unique opportunity to take responsibility and ownership of shaping their future.

“She further stressed the importance of the project, not only for the development of the Songwe region but also for the national Tanzanian economy.”