NIT’s Leader And Change-Maker Prof Mganilwa Retires As Rector after Twelve Years of Exceptional Service

 

After twelve years of exceptional service at the National Institute of Transport (NIT), Professor Zacharia Mganilwa retires from his role as Rector. Under Prof Mganilwa’s leadership, NIT has managed to create a surplus through significant growth in student numbers, partnerships and improved operating performance.

Under his leadership, NIT is now one of Tanzania and as well as East and Central Africa’s best higher learning institutions, with graduate employability and employer satisfaction rates among the highest in the region.

Prof Mganilwa who is still a public servant until 2028 when he will be at 65, says his wish is to remain at NIT to continue imparting knowledge and skills to the young academic generation with a vision of making the National Institute of Transport to start offering PhD’s programmes before his retirement in 2028.

 

The Outgoing Rector believes that achieving great success requires great personal sacrifice and energy, and he has done this with the utmost passion and integrity.

Our Staff Writer spoke in an exclusive interview with NIT’s outgoing Rector PROF MGANILWA. Read on.

Question: What are the greatest achievements you're most proud of during your time as NIT Rector?

Answer: One of my greatest achievements that I have recorded at NIT are many but in short, when I joined the National Institute of Transport in 2011/12 as Rector, the number of degree programmes offered here was only two but now when I’m leaving the office, there are 16-degree courses, the number of diploma programmes was only 2 in 2011/12 but now there are 25 courses.

Regarding students, by 2011/12 there were only 575 students but now we have 16,000 students.

During my time, the Institute has trained some academic staff to cope with the increased number of students. The academic and non-academic staff as of now are 400 compared to 12 years ago when the number of staff was 113.

In 2011, the Institute managed to employ only four transport specialists but now those specialists are over 150.

As for the domestic revenue, NIT has managed to increase its income from Tsh800 million in the fiscal year 2011/12 to Tsh25 billion in 2021/2022 and the Institute's budget improved from Tsh5 billion to Tsh96 billion.

When I came here in 2011, only one model of transport (Road) programme was trained here but now all five models of transport programmes are offered at NIT including Railway, Air, Marine and Pipeline.

Under my leadership, the Institute managed to purchase two aircraft Cessna Skyhawk single-engine worth USD 1.057m from United States-based Textron Aviation Inc. for pilot and other aviation courses.

In my time, I also managed to establish three more campuses that are still in the implementation stages. The campuses are NIT Lindi for Marine Engineering in supporting the blue economy, NIT Tabora Campus for training students on railway courses including manufacturing and repairing of railway wagons in the country and the other campus at Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) for aviation studies specifically on pilot courses.

During my time I also managed to establish the Centre of Excellence in Aviation and Transport Operations (CEATO) supported by the World Bank under the East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) worth Tsh49 billion and establishment of a Regional Center for Excellence in Road Safety (RCoE) with the funding of USD 2.25 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) administered by Tanzania Road Agency.

Q: What are your plans as you retire as a rector?

A: Well, I have retired as a Rector after 12 years, but I have five more years until I retire as a public servant in 2028. With these five years that remain until I officially retire, I want to spend the remaining time here at NIT to continue imparting the knowledge and skills that I have to the young academic generation.

I have marked over 500 theses and dissertations on master's and Ph.D. levels from several universities and higher learning institutes including Jomo Kenyatta University, Zimbabwe University, Makerere University, Nairobi University, University of Dar es Salaam, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology and many more.

I want this experience to remain at NIT and my vision is to make sure that by 2028, the National Institute of Transport can offer PhD’s programmes.

Q: What do you see as your legacy at NIT?

A: It's a very modest accomplishment. Now, the National Institute of Transport is attracting students with very high marks very different from the time that I joined the Institute. I am also happy that I leave a very motivated staff.

I also left the Institute with five faculties; no learning Institution under the NACTVET has such a big structure as we have.

Q: What are the biggest risks you’ve taken in your time at NIT?

A: The biggest risk I took during my time, was making possible things into possible. I remember announcing the pilot course while we didn’t have any planes for practical but now we have two practical aircraft and the other one is coming next year.

I hope I’ll be remembered as someone of integrity and principles, who was prepared to make some difficult decisions and who always acted in the best interests of NIT's students and staff.

Q: As the Rector of the most respectable higher learning institution in the country. How have you approached balancing the interests and opinions of different stakeholders?

A: The greatest quality of any leader is to be responsive. During my time I managed to work very closely with stakeholders which as also helped the Institute especially students and academic staff to have opportunities for industrial attachments.

However, the good collaborations with stakeholders have also enabled us to get good feedback that enabled NIT to make positive changes in our curriculums.

Q: Your role as Rector must have been incredibly demanding at times. How have you managed to juggle the many issues that you’ve been dealing with?

A: As a professional Engineer, I was trained to handle the multi-tasks, no matter how the tasks I used to have; I managed to handle all the work in my office because I understand that time doesn’t wait for anybody.

Living and studying in Japan for 7 years has helped me to achieve a lot and develop my career, this is one of the reasons why I managed to handle many issues as a Rector without problem.

Q: Why has it been so important to you that the NIT deepens its relations with the alumni community?

A: When I was appointed as Rector here, the Institute didn’t have a convocation or Alumni organization but I tried my best to unite all the alumni and now we are celebrating the 10th convocation. 

Meanwhile, after the establishment of the Alumni network of NIT for the past 10 years, we have managed to attract many public and private companies that are supporting our best students during the convocation celebrations.

Q: You have consistently championed philanthropy and made your donations to NIT. What has motivated you to give?

A: What I want to say, as a Tanzanian who received free education from Primary School to University as well as taken to Japan for seven years, I was indebted to my lovely country. That’s why I decided to work day and night to make sure that the Institute achieve its goals.

Q: What has been the biggest single change in the Higher Education sector during your time at NIT?

A: The biggest change I can be proud of is that when I started working as Rector, the Institute used to have only three academic staff with PhD’s but now there is more than 40 academic staff with PhD’s. Not only that, there were only two departments but now we have 14 departments and all of them are managed by PhD Holders.

Parting shot?

A: In an ever-growing and competitive world, creativity and innovation are the best tools for success. Therefore, I urge the remaining management and the one who will come to properly utilize creativity and innovation as well as collaborate with staff on the Institute projects.