IFM devises strategy to produce competent business graduates

The governing council of the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) is devising strategies to ensure constant supply of competent business graduates.

`The council is working hard to introduce business-related programmes and provide more opportunities for those who pursue studies to acquire required business-related knowledge,` said IFM governing council member Cashmir Nyoni at a function to welcome new postgraduate students in International Business at the college.

The programme is jointly run by IFM and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT).

Nyoni said competitive advantage in the business and investment world lay in knowledge-based activity.

`Our ability to succeed as individuals and as a nation will largely depend on our capacity to pick up or create new knowledge and skills and apply them faster than others,` he said.

He said the world was increasingly becoming a small village, prompting IFM and IIFT to start thinking beyond Tanzania�s borders so as to give the business programme international recognition and application.

`We ought to take advantage of regional integration, the World Trade Organization (WTO), AGOA and other global opportunities to make this programme be recognised and have a global outlook,` he said.

`I believe this is possible once we are willing and committed to do so,` noted Nyoni, calling on qualified Tanzanians to join the programme.

IIFT director Thomas Chako, said higher education was now an important tool for both countries and individuals to survive in a competitive world economy.

`As a country, Tanzania needs to have a competent and well-equipped human resource that will meaningfully contribute to the development of the public and private sectors,` noted Chako.

The first batch of the programme was enrolled in 2001 with a total of 18 students; the number increased to 31 in 2003.

After the introduction of a new strategy, the programme enrolled 55 and 52 students in 2004 and 2005, respectively.