The Aga Khan Wednesday completed the tour of the East African region by launching a multi-million shilling academy in Uganda.
The inauguration of the project, costing upwards of $50 million, makes Uganda the latest member of a group of 14 countries ear-marked to host a network of academies in Africa and Asia.
The academy will be a prototype of the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa built four years ago, chosen as the model of all the 18 institutions to be constructed in the next 15 years, under the Aga Khan Development Network.
It was the second project to be inaugurated in Uganda, after the launch of the $772-million-plus Bujagali hydropower project, the largest privately-funded electricity generation venture in East Africa.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony held in Munyonyo, the Aga Khan said the academies will constitute an inter-related community of learning where students and teachers shared ideas and insights.
"Some, like the first Academy in Mombasa, will be on ocean-side settings, others will be built on high mountain environments, desert terrain or forested areas or as in Kampala at the side of a beautiful lake," said the Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims.
The inauguration of projects in the East African region is part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Aga Khan, who recently completed 50 years as the Imam of the Ismaili community living in all the continents.
The Aga Khan said the academies will teach the international baccalaureate programme, which, he added, will enable students combine a cosmopolitan spirit with strong sense of cultural identity. The Imam, who performed a foundation stone-laying ceremony, together with Uganda's Vice President Gilbert Bukenya, said students admitted at the 18 institutions will be judged on merit and not by their financial resources.
"As students leave this programme, they will move onto quality universities and then to positions of social leadership," he told guests, who included representatives from the public and private sectors.
Prof Bukenya, who represented President Yoweri Museveni, thanked the Aga Khan for his generous contribution in the country's economic and social development.