Pic : IOU Vice Chancellor Prof. Makie Taal, Dr. Mohamed Salum (IOU Tanzania Representative), and Mr. Mustafa (IOU Pemba Representative) had the honor of meeting with the management of the Pemba Ministry of Education. The Ministry was represented by Mr. Khamis Mohammed Yahya (Coordinator, Department of Teachers Education), Mzee Ali Abdalla (Coordinator, Department of Sports and Culture), and Madam Aziza Alawy Mussa (Coordinator for Higher Education Unit).

The meeting covered several key matters. It began with an introduction of the IOU Vice Chancellor and IOU Tanzania Representative to the Ministry's team, followed by a formal introduction of IOU itself, presented by Dr. Mohamed Salum. Prof. Makie Taal, Vice Chancellor of IOU, then went on to present the proposed idea of collaboration between IOU and Pemba Islamic College.

The Ministry's coordinators received the proposal with great enthusiasm, expressing strong support for the initiative. They committed to forwarding the matter to the Main Ministry of Education of Zanzibar for further discussion and finalization, after which the process of formalizing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) will commence. On IOU's part, the next step is to finalize a concept note and submit it to the Ministry, enabling them to prepare and forward their report to the higher authorities of the Ministry of Education for review.

This engagement marks another important milestone in IOU's efforts to build strong institutional partnerships across Pemba and Zanzibar.