The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) signed a Memorandum of Association with the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two institutions. The ceremony took place at the NCHE Secretariat on 9th December 2025 and was witnessed by staff from both institutions.
The two institutions agreed to collaborate in four critical areas: strengthening quality and market relevance; research, innovation and commercialisation; information sharing and policy advocacy; and resource mobilisation.
The Executive Director of NCHE, Prof. Mary Okwakol, described the signing as binding. She said that the MoU solidified their commitment by bringing together the different expertise. NCHE would provide the necessary regulatory environment, while PSFU would mobilise private sector resources and expertise to benefit students, businesses and the national economy.
The CEO of PSFU, Mr. Stephen Asiimwe, described the MoU signing as a historic event because it addressed a major gap in the need for academia and industry to come into one room. He noted that the private sector and academia in Uganda had the capacity to transform the country. Unfortunately, they had remained locked in our different spaces. The meeting helped to break those barriers and served as a catalytic moment towards the intended outcomes.
PSFU Uganda had grown its partnership portfolio from 11 to 340 business partners over its 30 years of existence. Most of these partners had started as small and medium enterprises but had since grown into large conglomerates, such as Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola, among others. PSFU’s mandate encompassed policy and advocacy, skills and capacity building, and partnerships. Through its partnerships mandate, PSFU officially partnered with NCHE. Similarly, NCHE’s Strategic Plan 2025/26–2029/30 highlighted the need to strengthen collaborations, partnerships and stakeholder engagements as a way of enhancing corporate governance and increasing engagement in NCHE activities.
Prof. Okwakol expressed gratitude for the long-awaited signing. They celebrated the formalisation of the long standing relationship between NCHE and PSFU because they shared a common vision; a vision to address the critical need for a workforce that was relevant to Uganda’s economic development. The vision rooted in Uganda’s Vision 2040 and the NDP IV, which defined higher education as vital for developing human capital and producing a skilled workforce capable of meeting labour and entrepreneurial needs.
