The Milton Margai Technical University (MMTU) has won a grant of over 100,000 Euros from 700,000 Euros to implement the Sierra Leone Education in Entrepreneurial Pedagogy and Skills Project (SLEEK) which, when effectively implemented, will become a game changer in Sierra Leone by strengthening the link between academia and businesses.
The SLEEK Project was launched at the Great Hall of the Congo Cross Campus on Thursday 12th June 2025.
The project will impart real world skills, pitch ideas, train beneficiaries on how to collect and analyze data, develop creative thinking skills, teach problem identification for solution to make the world a better place as it was noted that the world has become unpredictable and that the project will handle uncertainties.
A survey and comprehensive pedagogy have been developed for the project in addition to review of the curriculum with partners to train faculty, market women. Also, the project will be divided into work packages including project management and quality assurance.
Other beneficiaries of the European Union Erasmus grant are the Institute of Public Administration and Management, the University of Makeni, the University of Management and Technology (UNIMTECH) and Innovation Sierra Leone while the United Methodist Church University is an observer.
Officially launching the project, the Director of Higher Education in the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, Mr. Emmanuel J. Momoh Esq. appealed to universities to embark on research that should be the hob for policy makers and underscored that MMTU has positioned itself to drive the process of the Technical University forward.
He recalled the Education Week last year in which an electric vehicle and a solar generator were displayed underscoring that technical and vocational skills are vital for the development on any nation.
Mr. Momoh also encouraged institutions of higher learning to apply for grants as well as undertake pubic private partnerships as government has competing priorities, commended MMTU for the initiative that would promote local content and admonished the institution to bring market women and other business people onboard the project.
In his overview of the SLEEK Project, Mr. Papa N’Jai, Coordinator of Short Courses, MMTU, assured that in the next couple of months he would visit the various faculties to sensitize them about the project that is one of the pillars of the government’s human capital development, that the project would look at the issues in Sierra Leone and proffer solutions reiterating that the project would do things differently.
According to Papa N’Jai, entrepreneurship cuts across all disciplines, that the project would change the mindset of students, that government provides the enabling environment for citizens to be innovative and creative and appealed to all to make good use of the incubator hob at the Goderich campus of the MMTU to develop their ideas noting that the project is a continuation of the hob to enrich the work they have already begun.
He furthered that a combined launch of the project would be held in September this year, an Entrepreneurship Week in October and International Innovation Sierra Leone in December.
The Vice Chancellor and Principal of the MMTU, Professor Philip John Kanu, commended the European Union and other donors for the grant, that the project would be the game changer if successfully implemented, cataloged the institution’s five key objectives in its strategic plan: -access and relevance as a Technical University, financial sustainability, ensure quality assurance, applied research and community services.
He further articulated that the project would train students to make them relevant in society and urged them to have passion for what they do.
Earlier in his welcome statement, the Acting Dean of the Congo Cross Campus, Engineer Rodney Jenner-Lewis reiterated that the project is geared towards promoting entrepreneurship; provide a link between entrepreneurship and academia in all disciplines, provide the much-needed skills for businesses and management as well as provide ideas and develop solutions to challenges and industries.
In his statement of purpose, the Acting Dean, Faculty of Business and Management Studies, Mr. Abdul Bademba Barrie revealed that the launch of the project would create awareness to help capacitate lecturers to effectively teach entrepreneurship to address the gap, build networks with businesses to create a nation of job creators and not seekers and in the process employ others that would have a multiplying effect in the country.
He continued that the project would capacitate lecturers to effectively deliver, noting that entrepreneurship cuts across all disciplines.
The MMTU Public Relations Officer, Madam Elizabeth Sesay, moderated the ceremony, while the Students’ Union Governor of the Congo Cross Campus, Foday Sorie Kamara, rendered the vote of thanks.
