The Aga Khan University has announced a US$1 billion investment in education in the East Africa region.

At the same time, the Aga Khan – the hereditary spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims - yesterday said Africa must move rapidly to establish and reinforce a healthy civil society to help improve quality of life.

The US$1 billion investment, to be realised over 15 years, will see to the establishment of new campuses and graduate schools in the region, with US$700 million going to Tanzania.

Speaking when he officiated at the Aga Khan University (AKU) graduation ceremony in Dar-es-Salaam, the Aga Khan said both the developed and the developing worlds need quality civil society organisations to confront the future, adding that they were critical if the quality of human life is to be improved.

“More and more, I am convinced that the key to improving quality of human life – both in places that are gifted with good governments and in places that are not so fortunate, is the quality of what I describe as civil society,” said the Aga Khan.

He defined civil society as an array of institutions which are neither public nor profit driven, but which are motivated by voluntary commitments and dedicated to the public good: “They include institutions dedicated to culture, to public information, to the environment and to religious faith. And they include, very importantly, the fields of health and education.”

The Ismailia imam said a healthy civil society is a meritocratic one, where ethics are honoured, and excellence is valued. “And the great question confronting us here in Africa is how rapidly the institutions of a healthy civil society can be established and reinforced.”

The Aga Khan University on Monday became the first such foreign institution to be given a charter by the Tanzanian government.

READ: Tanzania’s Kikwete grants the Aga Khan University charter

The Aga Khan said Tanzania was a special place for AKU since his grandfather, while serving as Imam of the Ismaili Muslim community, made education a top priority and started the first Aga Khan School in Africa over 110 years ago in Bagamoyo.

Over the last 15 years, AKU has graduated 12,000 students including nearly 2,000 nurses and 3,000 teachers. Over the last one year it has trained 1,000 secondary school headteachers.

A new campus is being built in Arusha to be ready in four years to house the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, two graduate schools, a technology and research park, and a library.