A master plan FOR future look of University of Juba - Courtesy

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba has announced a master plan for the construction of what he described as a “Technology City” in the learning Institution.

The proposed 250,000 square meters land in custom markets will involve the construction of infrastructures that can be utilized to generate revenue and create thousands of jobs.

The facilities include business school, high technology, science and business park, hotel and a convention or conference center and super market.

It will also include a hospital, male and female students hostel, a gym and sports center, students business area, staffing residence and shopping arcades.

Professor John Akec says the University will share a portion of the project with investors.

“We are targeting spaces in the Customs Market area which have not been developed and the idea is that that place will contain a business school, library, student hostels,” Akec told Eye Radio on Thursday.

“We also talk about shopping markets, shopping malls, we are talking about a convention center and a hotel, we are talking about flays for the staff, office spaces, sports centers.

“The idea will be like we can invite anybody who wants to invest. You want to build a shopping center then you do it. Library and business school.

“Hostels can be built by investors and then they recover their cost and we agree that a certain percentage will come to the University for the land that we have.”

When asked by Eye Radio on the duration of the planned objectives, Akech says the dream can be achieved depending on the presence of relevant peace in the Country.

“This things [project] will take more than one Vice Chancellors. What I have to do, I am looking at the future, and the coming of investors to South Sudan will also depend on how our economy is doing and how peace is doing,” Prof. Akec told Eye Radio.

“If we are stable and the economy is doing well, then you find people are going to come to South Sudan and very soon, we will be actually building, putting new structures because this money that we are having every year you know is something renewable.”

On Wednesday, the University of Juba inaugurated the renovated buildings of the Main Administration block, Biology Lab, School of Medicine, School of Natural Resources, School of Computer Science and Information Technology and Mechanical Engineering Laboratory.

The institution started the renovations in 2020 through the contribution of students in the form of tuition fees.

The first phase of the renovation cost about USD 900,000 and the second phase cost about USD 1.4 million.

University of Juba currently hosts about 25,000 undergraduates and 4,000 postgraduates’ students in seventeen schools, three institutes and four specialized centers.