ONE OF TANZANIA'S TOP FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING ACADEMICIANS TO BE LAID TO REST IN BUKOBA TOMORROW

The late Professor Kami Rwegasira.

One of Tanzania's top finance and accounting academicians, Professor Kami Rwegasira, who died on Friday while on an official assignment in Rwanda, will be laid to rest on Wednesday at his village of Katoma in Bukoba.

Family spokesperson Dickson Rutagemwa said in Dar es Salaam on Monday that Prof Rwegasira passed away suddenly while on a working trip to Rwanda on behalf of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT).

He is survived by a wife, Agnes Rwegasira Kiishweko, and two children, Manzi Rwegasira and Tensa Rwegasira. Early this month, Prof Rwegasira released and presented at Open University of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam, his research publication titled "Corporate Governance: A Reflexive Mirror Image of Public Political Governance with a reference to Tanzania", which expounded on the link between public and corporate governance.

Prof Rwegasira was a professor at Maastricht School of Management in The Netherlands before he recently joined OUT. He had also been professor of Finance and Accounting at Maastricht School of Management (MSM) and chair, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics since 2003.

He was also the school's Associate Dean (1996-2003) responsible for PhD/ Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) Degree Studies Division. The departed don was also a member of MSM management team (1990- 2006).

He joined MSM in 1987 and until 1994 he was director of MBA studies. He pioneered and led the initial establishment of several key degree programmes at MSM including the DBA in 1996 and MBA (Accounting and Finance) in 1992.

He had earlier worked as a financial analyst in banking and a consultant to the World Bank, UNDTCD (New York), ILO (Geneva) and national governments. He taught at City University of New York , University of Dar es Salaam, ESAMI (Arusha) and IFM (Dar), where he was deputy and interim director (CEO).

He served as a board member of more than ten boards and was board chairman of four national parastatals and private enterprises in Tanzania. He has lectured in Europe, USA, China, Brazil, Peru , Middle-East, Eastern and Southern Africa and South- East Asia. He has published internationally 5 books and more than 70 journal articles.

He researched in finance and governance systems. He is enlisted and/or profiled in, among others, Who is Who in European Executive Education (IMEC Publishing, Deventer 1992 NL), Harvard International Directory of Business Management Scholars and Research (HBS Publishing Boston 1996 USA) and the Directory of Development Researchers in NL (NUFFIC/ CIRAN, The Hague 1995).

Prof Rwegasira believed that the introduction of e-governance could be used to fight corruption in Tanzania as successfully happened in India and South Korea. He has authored various books including "Inflation in Tanzania: Causes, effects and control".