The day was proclaimed by UNESCO at its 40th general assembly in 2019 to present an opportunity for the world to celebrate the contribution of engineering to sustainable development.
Eng Dr Isaac Mutenyo, the ERB chairman, says the strategic plan has been developed after careful consideration of the current situation and development trajectory of Uganda and is going to focus on improving technical skills of engineers, technicians and artisans to prepare them for meaningful practice, enhancing regulation and promotion of engineers and engineering businesses, recognition and regulation of the much forgotten allied cadres, technicians, technologists and artisans, promotion of local content, technology and innovation and increasing the numbers of registered engineers.
“This plan sets forward the things we think must be done over this 5 year period to have engineering practice well anchored in government development programmes. We are going to look at building the skills of engineers through a structured program that we are going to present to government, recognize and build the capacity of technicians and artisans and also regulate their work.
We have also discovered that as a board, we have been focusing more on engineers with degrees, but we would like now to register technicians with diplomas and technologists with higher diplomas and also increase the number of registered engineers from the current number of about 1,300,” he said.
Mutenyo further adds that they are going to shift their focus from working with individual professional engineers to looking at the whole business of engineering including construction and consultancy work and also improve their technical capacity and their ability to manage business because these professionals cannot deliver while working from a difficult business environment.
He therefore requested the government to put engineering at the center of all development interventions because it (government) has strategized to reap benefits from the oil and gas potential, establishment of cities to deal with rapid urbanization and the expansion of electricity and power supply and all these strategies can best be achieved through a good engineering practice.
The strategic plan was officially launched by Peter Lokeris, the state minister for Works and Transport, who said that government is at the fore front of ensuring that the engineering professionals are adequately trained, facilitated, remunerated and offered opportunities to provide the best professional services to their country.
“The Engineers Registration Act (1969) will be repealed and amended to provide for a stronger and effective legal framework that will address the present challenges, such as the current low registration rate where only 1,300 registered engineers cater for a population of 45 million Ugandans, too many informal sector and unprofessional practices, shoddy and poor quality of works and services. The construction industry bill is also under preparation and will be enacted into law in the near future,” he said.
He therefore invited all engineers to focus at the opportunities and achieving the objectives of the third National Development Plan (NDP III) which has been structured into eighteen programs that have been designed to deliver the required results under this plan since engineers will be at the center of implementation of at least 12 out the 18 NDP III programs.
ERB’s five year strategic plan is go-ing to be implemented at an estimated cost of Shs 32.8 billion where Shs 25 billion is going to be used for the development of the Engineers tower and associated facilities at Namanve site and Shs 7.8 billion will cover the operations of the Board in implementation of its regulation function.
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