The signing was held at the MoHERST Conference Hall in Bijilo. It was a draft agreement on Higher Education, Scientific Research and Technological Innovation. The event marked the first MoU signed between the two institutions.
The signing was aimed at strengthening the already existing cordial bilateral ties between the two nations.
The Gambia has benefitted from numerous capacity building initiatives from the Kingdom of Morocco in one of the priority areas of the ministry such as the construction and equipping of a multi-purpose TVET Centre.
In his welcoming remarks, Professor Pierre Gomez, the minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, recalled Gambia’s bilateral relations with Kingdom of Morocco dating back in the 70s.
Based on that, President Adama Barrow gave an instruction to open the doors of cooperation for The Gambia, especially with the Kingdom of Morocco for youth of the country to enhance human capital development.
He said Abdellatif Miraoui, the minister for Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation of the Kingdom of Morocco and their sectors have awarded the Gambia over 120 scholarships for this year.
He said from that, The Gambia government would focus the scholarships on key areas of development such as the STEM engineering, mathematics and TVET.
The scholarship advisory board, he said, is going through a process of short listing and interviewing so that by next semester, the awardees would be going to Morocco to study at different levels for Masters and PhDs in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) areas where they lacked capacity.
For his part, Abdellatif Miraoui revealed that the two countries have positive cooperation track record in the higher education and research sectors.
He noted that the enrollment of the 131 Gambian students in Moroccan universities in 2023 and 56 co-publications during the last decade leave room to exploit the high potential of inter-university cooperation.
He added that sharing the Moroccan experience in the design and implementation of the Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation strategy PACTE ESRI 2030 is to access public universities for all, while improving the capacities of reception and housing.
That, he said, includes support for women’s empowerment (LeaderShe), digitalisation of higher education, open science, students training in digital skills and power skills likewise encouraging extracurricular activities and entrepreneurship.
Ahmed Belhadj, the Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Banjul, said that higher education is one of the areas in which they wish to work more for a better future for the next generation.
