Lilongwe Technical College expansion near completion: Minister Mussa ‘impressed’

Construction of new additional facilities at Lilongwe Technical College is expected to be completed by the end of this year, government has said.

The college is undergoing expansion with the addition of facilities like a football pitch, refrigeration workshop, eight classrooms, eight offices and a lecture theatre.

Speaking during a surprise tour of the $150 million African Development Bank (AfDB) funded project, Minister of Labour, Sports and Manpower Development Henry Mussa said government is satisfied with the progress at the site.

“We are happy with the progress being made on this ambitious project which will see the college having new facilities that will help the youth acquire demand driven vocational skills,” said Mussa.

He added that government is happy that the contractor for the Lilongwe project has engaged 25 youths from the technical college as one way of giving the students industrial experience.

“Most of our youths have the skills and knowledge but have nothing to do. It is for this reason that government is focusing on increasing the levels of skills of such youths for self-employment establishment of vocation training centres. Our target is that by June next year, each of the 28 districts should have a community college,” Mussa said.

James Chuma, managing director of a joint venture between J&J Construction and China Gansui, which was awarded the construction project said he is optimistic that the facilities will be ready after three months.

“We were supposed to handover the project this month. We are using electric tools for construction, so intermittent power supply and blackouts that were prevalent last year and the early months of this year affected our work hence the delay,” Chuma said.

AfDB is also bankrolling similar projects at three other technical colleges in the country namely, Soche in Blantyre, Nasawa in Zomba and Salima Technical College.

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