7 June, 2018, Zanzibar: The Chief Secretary of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Dr. Abdulhamid Yahya Mzee, officiated a six-day regional executive education programme for senior officials from Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria and Namibia today.

Organised by UONGOZI Institute in collaboration with the International Senior Lawyers Project, the executive programme aims to equip the leaders with the necessary skills and techniques to negotiate and secure lucrative deals in the oil and gas industry that will reap substantial benefits for their nations and the African continent.

In his opening speech, Chief Secretary Dr. Mzee highlighted the timeliness of the training, with Tanzania currently settling the foundations to make the best use of discoveries for the development of the country.

“Such investments and the byproducts have the potential to not only create jobs for Tanzanians, but to bring in significant revenues from the export sale of the gas,” said Dr. Mzee.

He went on to note that this requires complex negotiations, necessitating training programmes such as this to ensure that the outcome of those negotiations provide optimal benefits to African nations.

On behalf of the CEO of UONGOZI Institute, the Head of Capacity Building at UONGOZI Institute, Mr. Kadari Singo said through the training, participants’ understanding of the sector and its complexities, as well as negotiation capacities in oil and natural gas commercial contracts and investments deals will be strengthened.

“This is the second year that we are running a regional programme on negotiation skills,” he explained, “UONGOZI Institute runs several executive education programmes throughout the year on negotiation skills for natural resources, and we feel that it is important that these skills are also built at a regional level, which brings us to this course.”