ABOUT THE SOUTH CENTRAL AFRICAN GEM ACADEMY
Salomon Lutumba - Director of Education
Salomon Lutumba is an alumnus of Birmingham City University where he graduated with a Bachelor in Science with honours in Gemmology and Jewellery studies in 2016. He also holds a Diamond Diploma and Gemmology certificate from Gem-A. He is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where in fact, the subsoil is one of the richest in the world in terms of geology and mineralogy.
Since the country has gold in respectable quantities, he joined his uncle, a jeweller in 1995, as a business partner in buying and selling jewelleries, scrap and rough gold at the big city market of Kinshasa. Sometimes the pieces would be set with fascinating and attractive coloured stones. Unfortunately, since their priority was gold and they lacked knowledge regarding gemstones, they could not deal with them. However Salomon was fascinated and captivated by the beauty and mystery of those mounted stones. As a consequence, he developed a passion for gemstones and in the process discovered that his own country contained a wide variety of mineral species with many having a high aesthetic and monetary value. Sadly there were no colleges or training centres offering a gemmology program in the Democratic Republic of Congo that allowed him to pursue his interest, only abroad.
In 2002 he relocated to England where, ten years later, he found the opportunity to fulfil his dream of studying gemmology at the Birmingham City University. In 2012, he started his High National Diploma in Gemmology combined with Gem-A’s Diamond and Gemmology program which led to a degree program, introduced for the first time in 2015, at the BCU.
Today, by embracing the World Gem Foundation’s concept and philosophy of gemmological education, and through the Gem Academy of DRC, he would like to share his passion and knowledge of gems with his fellow Congolese; particularly jewellers, aspiring gemmologist and gemstone lovers. His personal ambitious goal is to promote the science of gemmology in his country, by providing information and support to empower people in the jewellery business and those trading in stones.
ABOUT THE WORLD GEM FOUNDATION
The World Gem Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that was formed in 2015 with the mandate to provide quality and affordable gemmological training to students, jewellers and professional gemmologists.
Currently consisting of seventeen national and regional gem academies in the United Kingdom, Holland, the U.S, Canada, Spain, Belgium, France/Monaco/Switzerland, Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland), Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Kosovo, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovak Republic and Slovenia), East Africa (Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Somaliland, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe), South Central Africa (Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa), West Africa (Ascension, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Togo, Tristan da Cunha), Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica; Belize and Panama), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname), the Caribbean (Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands (U.K.), Cuba, Puerto Rico, Curaçao (Netherlands), Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos), Sri Lanka and India. We plan to establish more academies around the world in 2023.
