N$1.6 billion training centre for Swakop

Welwitchia Health Training Centre (WHTC) officially launched the construction of its N$1.6 billion Swakopmund School of Engineering, Marine, Logistics and Health Sciences recently. The Swakopmund campus will be situated in the Ocean View suburb. The eighth WHTC campus should accommodate a minimum of 4 000 students. Rector and founding member of WHTC, Prof Scholastika Iipinge, said education is an important catalyst for social change and sustainable development and is a constitutional right for all Namibians. “WHTC is here to respond to the needs of the Swakopmund community as well as students who have been traveling to Windhoek and other regions for years. They will now have a chance to study in various disciplines, right here at home.” According to Iipinge, the centre should be commissioned by 2028. “The centre will indeed be a marvel to behold upon completion. The school will shape the lives of the surrounding community, the entire nation, and Africa at large through provision of knowledge, entrepreneurial skills job creation, to the youth and other services and amenities,” said founding member Monika Pendukeni.The viability of this campus is reinforced by the creation of research facilities that will enable the growth of the engineering, logistics, marine, and health industries. It will be a world-class facility that will facilitate the growth of Swakopmund municipality and make it an ideal town for educational and health tourism given the exponential increase in the population of the town that the centre will bring.The main architect of the high-tech centre, Palestinian-national Omar Zaher, principal of Dubai-based IDP Engineering Consultancy, called the centre an “award winning design” in which the elements of Namibia’s natural and cultural elements were studied and incorporated to make it as aesthetically appealing to Swakopmund as possible. “We don’t draw ideas, we create a better life for people through our projects,” he told attendants at the groundbreaking ceremony.According to him, the facility’s design will emphasise a “greener and smarter” feature that will complement Swakopmund’s plans to become a smart, clean city in the near future.Iipinge told Erongo 24/7 that Namibian architects were invited to participate in the design, but they did not impress with their design aesthetics as much as Zaher. She said that Namibian architects will however be involved in the projects.A Namibian architect told this publication that the scale and complexity of the new centre might be above the local architectural fraternity’s capabilities and agreed that it may have been the best idea to get an international reputable architectural designer such as Zaher on board.The WHTC groundbreaking took place exactly a month after the International University of Management had the official groundbreaking ceremony of its N$42 million research, training and conference centre in Swakopmund.

N$1.6 billion training centre for Swakop

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Republikein 2025-07-17

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N$1.6 billion training centre for Swakop

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