The president of Zanzibar Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, and Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, external affairs minister of India, attended the signing ceremony.

India has announced plans to set up a campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

This is the first IIT Madras Campus set up outside India, and the government says this shows its longstanding friendship with Tanzania.

IIT Madras -ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in India - was founded in 1959.

A memorandum of understanding for setting up of campus of IIT Madras in Zanzibar was signed this week between India’s Ministry of Education, IIT Madras and Zanzibar’s Ministry of Education and vocational training.

The president of Zanzibar Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, and Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, external affairs minister of India, attended the signing ceremony.

In a statement, India’s External affairs ministry said the national education policy of 2020 focuses on internationalisation and recommends that: "High performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries”.

To this end, the ministry said it is setting the campus to bring the educational expertise of IITM to Africa and serve the imperative current needs of the region.

The ministry said: “IIT campus in Zanzibar is a higher education and research institution with a broader mission to develop competencies in response to emerging global requirements."

In addition, it said the campus will support research and innovation in the region, along with serving as an example to the world of the aspirational qualities of Indian higher education and innovation.