By Badylon Kawanda Bakiman
The University of Kikwit (UNIKIK), one of the institutions of Higher and University Education (ESU) in the town of Kikwit, Kwilu province, in the south-west of the Republic of Congo (DRC), now has a new building for the Faculty of Medicine. This jewel, with its incomparable architectural allure, is the pride not only of this economic-political city, but also of the entire province, considered by many to be the “Latin Quarter” of this part of the country.
The official inauguration ceremony took place on Saturday, April 26, 2025 at UNIKIK. The ceremony was attended by ESU’s infrastructure advisor in the DRC, and the representative of the Minister in charge. The President of the National Order of Physicians, the Commander of the 11th Military Region, the Mayor of Kikwit, the Managing Directors and members of the Management Committees of local ESU institutions, the representative of the Bishop of Kikwit, members of the town’s Security Council, the representative of the ESU General Secretary and many other personalities also attended this colorful ceremony.
This action also meets the requirements of Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 9, which call for quality education and infrastructure.
“This building is being constructed thanks to the contribution of our students, who play an important role in this Alma Mater. On behalf of the entire university community of Kikwit, I would like to express our gratitude to the President of the Republic, Head of State, His Excellency Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, who, with the local development program for 145 territories, has included the construction of hospitals and administrative infrastructures for the institutes and universities, despite disruptive hazards such as the war imposed on us by Rwanda with its M23 auxiliaries. The government of the Republic, led by Her Excellency Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka, is working to implement this 145-territory project with skill and fairness. It is in this particularly motivating context that your management of higher education has set very positive signals by sponsoring the construction of new infrastructures at ESU”, declared Abbé Rector Alphonse Kapumba, recalling the special history of the university he heads.
Construction of the building began in January 2023, and took two years to complete. He took the opportunity to thank the hierarchy and the students, the main creditors who built the building with their own funds.
“UNIKIK needs the right infrastructure for its outreach. To this end, the Management Committee has set about modernizing the infrastructure by restoring doors, windows and glass, creating a video-conferencing room for distance learning, manufacturing a large number of benches because of the crying lack of writing desks, equipping the professors’ guest-house, equipping the offices with computers, printers and other equipment; also improving our laboratories (…) I have a double, almost opposite feeling, i.e. one of satisfaction and one of dissatisfaction: satisfaction because the building for the Faculty of Medicine has been moved out of our university grounds; dissatisfaction because the wish to see three other buildings move out of our grounds to give UNIKIK a framework for outreach and quality work is permanent”, hammered the Abbé Rector, referring to the urgent need to lay the foundation stone for a new building for the University of Kikwit hospital center.
The building, inaugurated last Saturday, cost exactly 559,000 US dollars, a staggering sum that was difficult to raise.
For his part, Dr. Berthier Nsadi, President of the National Order of Physicians in the DRC, hailed it as “a moment of great satisfaction” for this jewel obtained through his own efforts. He expressed a “feeling of achievement”.
“First and foremost, I would like to solemnly thank the Rector of Kikwit, his management committee and the entire organizing committee of this event for inviting the Ordre des médecins de la RDC to this important, oh so symbolic inauguration of the beautiful building that will house the Faculty of Medicine at your university. For us, the National Council of the Order of Physicians, it is a moment of great satisfaction to see the University of Kikwit endowed with this infrastructure, the result of all the commitment, planning and execution of one of the Order of Physicians’ recommendations to university management committees at the end of the mission to monitor the viability of our country’s medical faculties entrusted by the Order of Physicians in 2019”, he declared.
He recommended that in the future UNIKIK should build a university hospital.
For his part, the representative of the Minister of ESU expressed his admiration for this “gigantic infrastructure” built with his own funds.
“The Minister of ESU warmly congratulated the Management Committee headed by Professor Alphonse Kapumba Kodi, Rector, for the efforts and sacrifices made to provide the University of Kikwit with a worthy building, improving both the institution’s intake capacity and learning conditions”, said the representative of the Minister of ESU, to a round of applause.
He emphasized that, as the supervisory authority, the Minister feels “immense joy” in seeing that “this magnificent work” is the result of a dream that stems from the vision of His Excellency the President of the Republic-Head of State, to build and modernize infrastructures dedicated to the training of our country’s student youth.
All the other speeches delivered at the event, including those by the mayor of Kikwit, the student coordinator, the president of the Board of Directors of the Universities of Congo, Professor Nzovo and Professor Jacques Tiarina, praised the joint efforts made to obtain the building and urged everyone to put it to good use.
Asked what name should be given to the building, Jean Bunkete, one of the observers at the inaugural ceremony, didn’t mince his words: “This building should be called ‘Immeuble Kapumba’. Nobody said that during the speeches. If he builds another building, it will be ‘Immeuble Kapumba 2’ and so on”.
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