Author: ACE Comms Team

DAY 1 SUMMARY OF THE 9TH ACE IMPACT REGIONAL WORKSHOP

The 9th ACE Impact Regional Workshop commenced in Marrakech, Morocco on the 29th May 2023. The first day’s programme featured 7 key meetings.

  • Project Steering Committee Meeting

In the morning the Project Steering Committee (PSC) of the ACE Impact met at Riad Ennakhil Hotel to deliberate on the implementation progress of the project. The PSC meeting was chaired by Prof. Kouami Kokou, the PSC Member from Togo and it involved the representatives of the 11 ACE Impact implementing countries, the Association of African Universities, the World Bank, Research Institute for Development (IRD) and the French Development Agency. The opening ceremony featured Prof. Olusola B. Oyewole, Secretary General, AAU; Virginie Delisée-Pizzo, Head of Education Department, AFD Paris (connecting virtually) and Scherezad Latif, Practice Manager, West and Central Africa Region, World Bank. Dr Sylvia Mkandawire the Senior ACE Impact Project Manager provided the project updates, and she was supported by Mrs Adeline Addy (MEL, AAU); Mr Frank Adjei (Finance, AAU); Maud Kouadio IV (Project Disbursements, World Bank); and Mr. Harry Crimi (Project restructuring, World Bank). Dr. Gregory Giraud from IRD explained the support that IRD provides to the ACE Impact Centres. The PSC also deliberated on strategies for sustaining the gains from the ACE Impact project beyond the funding from the World Bank. Dr. Ekua Bentil, the ACE Impact Task Team Leader, from the World Bank also participated and provided next steps and closing remarks.

 

  • Experts Meeting

The Experts Meeting took place in parallel with the PSC Meeting at Riad Ennakhil Hotel. The purpose of the Experts Meeting was for the experts to engage in experience and feedback sharing from missions done to the Centres. This meeting also deliberated on strategies for supporting the Centers to achieve more results in line with the agreed project restructuring plans for each Centre. The group of subject matter experts are a team that contributes to the operational and technical implementation support and supervision of the ACE Impact Centers. These independent Experts are selected based on their academic and/or disciplinary expertise relative to the ACE Impact Centers, and their international experience in higher education and/or university leadership.

  • Procurement Meeting

The procurement session was held at the Palm Plaza Hotel and Spa in the afternoon and the attendees were procurement officers from the 53 Centres. The objective was to ensure that procurement contracts are successfully implemented by the Centres. The key presentation was in 2 parts – that is best practices, common challenges and experience sharing in managing procurement contracts and common and specific roles of procurement officers as part of a contract management team. The key highlights of this session were:

  1. Procurement Officers are not Project / Contract Managers.
  2. Proper planning and assignments of roles to members of the contract management team are prerequisites to successful contract implementation.
  3. Roles that cut across all procurement categories were highlighted as Contract Negotiation and Award; Contract Documentation; Relationship Management; Risk Management and Contract Change Management.
  4. Roles that are specific to the different procurement categories were also emphasized.

 

  • Financial Management

The financial management and disbursement parallel session concentrated on the financial management aspects of the project, and it was facilitated by the fiduciary team of the World Bank and the AAU. The session provided guidance and clarifications to the Centre finance officers concerning the World Bank financial management guidelines. The session provided a brief of centers’ achievements status and proposed changes for disbursement linked indicator six (DLR 6). During the meeting, the facilitators mentioned that it was essential to accelerate the progress on DLR6. Currently, the achievement status for DLR6 stands at 33% for the first ACE Impact centers and at 32% for the second ACE Impact centers. The need for speeding up implementation progress was emphasized so that the desired targets are met. The session also discussed the proposed changes to DLR 6 and these comprised the following:

  1. The remaining balance on DLR 6.4 is being reallocated to the other 3 sub-indicators under DLR6.
  2. An increase in the unit cost for DLR 6 was communicated and this would take care of the unachieved funds under DLR 6
  3. There are three more rounds of verification remaining for the project i.e., August 2023, Feb 2024, and August 2024.

 

  • Safeguards

The parallel session on Environment and Social Safeguards (E&S Safeguards) lasted around 4 hours and included a wide range of discussions on E&S Safeguards issues affecting the ACE Impact project. The items discussed during this session were part of the principal challenges and difficulties raised during the virtual round tables, and those identified by the World Bank and AAU E&S Safeguard experts over the last six months. The session was led by Gina Consentino from the World Bank, and Williams Dzonteu, E&S Safeguards Specialist from the Association of African Universities. The following key points were discussed:

  1. Each site where work has commenced should be visited by the World Bank and it is important that the project ensures that these visits take place.
  2. The Centres must monitor the Environmental, Social, Health and Safety aspects on all worksites that are ongoing and produce monitoring reports.
  3. Each Centre must prepare and transmit a quarterly follow-up/monitoring report on all aspects of E&S Safeguards to the World Bank and AAU.
  4. The level of implementation / monitoring of the Grievance Redress Mechanism in each Centre
  5. The level of implementation and monitoring of anti-sexual harassment policies by the Centers
  6. The difficulties faced by each center.

 

For each of the points discussed, clear recommendations were made to the E&S Specialists from the various centers, to ensure that better account was taken of safeguard-related aspects throughout the lifecycle of the ACE Impact project.

 

  • Monitoring and Evaluation

The M&E parallel session was organised for the M&E officers of participating ACEs. The aim of the session was to inform M&E officers about current changes to the project verification and reporting protocols. Due to the ongoing restructuring of the project, additional funds have been allocated to specific disbursement linked results (DLRs) and in some instances, funds allocated have been reduced. As part of the restructuring, the World Bank has also introduced several project-wide changes to the verification protocols of disbursement linked indicators and results. These include changes in the verification process for DLI 2 (Development Impact), increases in the unit cost for international programme accreditation and changes to how funds can be earned under DLR 5.3 (Entrepreneurship and Innovation).

Mrs. Adeline Addy, the ACE Impact M&E Specialist led the session and made a presentation on the changes to the project and the implications of the restructuring to results reporting and verification. The M&E officers were also given information about the verified results for students and research publications. The M&E team from AAU responded to all centre questions regarding verification of results. The reporting and verification schedule for results was also shared with the participants. In conclusion, the M&E officers were asked to submit any of their concerns on results reporting and verification to a dedicated SharePoint link. M&E officers were also asked to submit all results achieved to the MEL platform for immediate verification.

 

  • University Vice Chancellors and DLI 7 Focal Points

This session was specifically organised for University Vice Chancellors and disbursement linked indicator seven (DLI 7) Focal Points of each institution. The objective of the session was to update university leadership about the progress made in DLI 7 which focusses on institutional impact and the nimble impact evaluation done by the World Bank to assess the progress of the overall project. The DLI 7 is among one of the lowest earning indicators with a disbursement rate of 25%. Progress have been made notably on regional strategies (DLR 7.1) and on PASET benchmarking (DLR 7.4), with every institution having achieved 100% in the first round of evaluations. The indicators on gaps assessment (DLR 7.3) and institutional impact (DLR 7.5) are the lowest performing indicators. The University vice chancellors and focal points were encouraged to accelerate progress on these milestones.

The second session on the findings of the evaluation done by the World Bank consultants in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire centres was facilitated by Dr Jamil Salmi, formerly with the World Bank. The outcome of the evaluation revealed the positive effect the ACE impact project on the participating universities and African higher education development in general. He indicated the ACE model will be presented in Singapore this year and could be adopted worldwide. Some of the challenges revealed by the evaluation were related to institutional leaders that conflict with centre leaders in some centres and bureaucracy of internal processes which delay performances. The evaluation results concluded that when these challenges are managed there would be increased improvement in the progress of the project and the overall impact on African higher education.

PSC Members meet to discuss the implementation progress of the ACE Impact Project

Project Steering Committee Convenes in Marrakech to review ACE Impact Progress

As a prelude to the 9th ACE Impact Regional Workshop that was held in Marrakech Morocco from 29 May to 2nd June 2023, the Project Steering Committee (PSC) met to receive updates on the implementation of the project and to also provide guidance on implementation strategies. The ACE Impact project operates under the overall guidance and oversight of the PSC whose main tasks are to set implementation guidelines, review results and progress, oversee the Regional Facilitating Unit (the Association of African Universities) and to ensure the achievement of the project objectives.

Eleven (11) representatives of government/ministry of Higher Education from each of the ACE Impact participating countries converged at Riad Ennakhil Hotel in Marrakech to review and guide the overall progress of the project. The meeting was ably chaired by Professor Kokou, the PSC Member from Togo.

In his welcome remarks the Secretary General of the AAU, Professor Olusola Oyewole expressed his appreciation to the PSC members and Focal Points for their “enthusiasm and commitment to ensuring that centers are working up to expectations and at par with the project goals and targets”. He also paid special tribute to the Kingdom of Morocco through the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, and OCP Africa for their support and partnership in hosting the 9th ACE Impact Regional Workshop.

Progress Updates from the AAU

Dr Sylvia Mkandawire, the Senior ACE Impact Project Manager presented the progress report on behalf of the AAU which is the Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU) for the project. Her updates covered the period November 2022 to May 2023 and highlighted progress on the coordination and facilitation of regional activities, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, project communication, partnership brokering for sustainability and sharing of good practices across the countries.

The National Facilitation Units of Nigeria, the Gambia, Burkina Faso and Ghana were reported to have actively supported the implementation of several ACE Impact project activities such as evaluation exercises, implementation support missions and national review committee meetings. Dr Mkandawire also reported that the Project had achieved impressive results in the areas of external revenue generation (US$77 million), PhD enrollment (3,357 students), Masters enrolment (9,631 students), national program accreditation (283 programs nationally accredited), regional students enrolment (10,489 students), and female students enrolment (11,357 students).

It was reported that the AAU RFU had supported Centers with low disbursement linked indicator achievements, disbursements, and funds utilization rates through targeted technical support to improve their performance and increase earnings by June 2023. During this reporting period the AAU and World Bank teams together with appointed subject-matter experts had also undertaken virtual and onsite missions to 22 centers in Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo to follow-up on mid-term project actions and acceleration plans and to discuss the finalization of restructuring proposals. Dr Mkandawire narrated various seminars and trainings that had been hosted for the Centers on communication, celebrating women’s day, procurement, international institutional accreditation, and fighting sexual harassment.

In the area of project communication and visibility she shared that the RFU team was exploring partnership agreements with Science and Development (SciDev), Times Higher Education and the Voice of America (VoA), to profile the project’s success stories to an international audience. The ACE Impact Project was also reported to have brokered several project-wide partnerships to sustain the gains made so far. Examples of these partnerships include the Morocco-ACE Higher Education Forum hosted from 31 May to 2nd June 2023; the ongoing and upcoming partnerships with USA Universities; the IBM ACE Impact Partnership and the European Union Partnerships with selected Centers.

Dr Mkandawire concluded by sharing some challenges and opportunities presented by the ACE Impact project and these included inadequate capacities for developing safeguard instruments and plans before the rehabilitation, construction, or renovation activities; inefficient procurement systems; high inflation rates leading to delays and amendments to annual work plans, budgets, and procurement plans; inadequate strategies to support the sustainability of the Centers and insufficient numbers of qualified faculty at some Centers.

ACE IMPACT Project Restructuring

Overall, the ACE Impact project restructuring aims to optimize project performance, adapt to changing circumstances, and ensure successful project delivery within the available resources and constraints.

Mr Harry Crimi, the Education Consultant, with the World Bank reported on the activities that had been undertaken towards restructuring the ACE Impact Project ahead of the project closure on the 30th June 2025. The justification of the project extension and restructuring is based on several factors that include country specific delays, COVID-19 disruptions, costs already incurred that cannot be recovered, risks of not completing civil works, increasing demand for partnerships, and increased impact of the project on students receiving support.

The restructuring exercise involved the participating countries and their Centers. The roadmap towards the development of the restructuring plans for each of the Centers included the assessment of Centers, consultation with PSC, World Bank and AAU teams, and agreement on finalized parameters of restructuring. The restructuring was achieved through in-person and virtual support by the World Bank / AAU / AFD / PSC, leading to the reallocation of existing funds, and allocation of additional funds.

By the 30th June 2023 the World Bank team expects to have received restructuring/extension requests from participating governments, formally submitted restructuring packages to the World Bank management, sought formal clearance from the World Bank management and submitted notices to borrowing countries.

The Move Towards Digitalisation of the Water and Sanitation Sector

In the face of rising populations, changing demographics, natural disasters among others, the adoption of digital solutions, is a highly needful measure in catalysing innovations and supporting smarter water management. Digitally transforming Africa’s water and sanitation sectors is again critical in addressing the myriad of challenges confronting these sectors. 

According to a 2022 special report by the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets on water, sanitation and hygiene in Africa will require a dramatic acceleration in the current rates of progress. A statement released on this report projects that Africa requires a 12-fold increase in current rates of progress on safely managed drinking water and a 20-fold increase for safely managed sanitation to achieve its SDG targets.    

Higher education is indeed well placed to champion the digital transformation of the water and sanitation industry through the conduction of research, development of new knowledge, training of highly skilled manpower, leveraging start-of-the-art laboratories to develop new technologies and creating important platforms to educate and facilitate dialogue among stakeholders in the sector, as well as the public, just to mention a few.  

In a move to address the underlying challenges confronting the ICT and water/ sanitation sectors, the Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre, Kumasi (RWESCK), hosted by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), together with its partners are working to address the skill gaps identified in the application of digital innovations and smart circular economy in water and sanitation utilities management.   

Speaking at a national workshop on Digital Transformation Skills Development in the water and sanitation sector in Ghana, Prof. Sampson Oduro-Kwarteng, the Centre Director for RWESCK called on tertiary institutions across the continent to review their curriculum to include digital education in order to produce industry-ready graduates equipped with the requisite skills to transform the sector.  The centre is leading the way, by training over 300 PhDs and more than 200 master’s students from across the region on digital skills.  

Under the Nyansapo project, which is funded by the French Embassy in Ghana and implemented by RWESCK, the centre is focusing on introducing digital transformation skills into water and sanitation education to enhance the employability of young Ghanaian graduates with digitalisation innovation skills during their masters training, research and internship periods.

Again, RWESK has undertaken various projects aimed at employing innovative solutions to addressing water and sanitation issues. These include the 13 million Euros SWITCH project funded by the European Commission initiated to adopt modern technologies in realizing sustainable urban water management. That notwithstanding, the ACE Impact project has been instrumental in contributing to the centre’s overarching goal of delivering quality education and applied research at world-class standards. 

Breaking Barriers in Digital Innovation – The Story of Fatoumata Thiam

Fatoumata Thiam is a PhD student at the Centre of Excellence in Mathematics, Informatics, and Applications (CEA-MITIC) in Senegal. Her research focuses on Self-optimized Irrigation System based on the Internet of Things (IoT) in the Sahel. The Sahel is characterized by desertification and advancement of the sea, which accounts for limited access to arable farmland, as well as increased urbanization that threatens water resources. The resultant conditions are affecting farmers and their yields significantly, with the need for immediate advanced alternative irrigation. Ms. Thiam’s study aims to provide modern and affordable technology to farmers in water management, and precision irrigation with IoT. 

Fatoumata noted that she developed a passion for science at an early age which influenced her choice of study. She stated:

“I’ve always loved science and I grew up in it. Very early on I had access to computers, digital equipment, music players, etc. and it has always caught my attention and curiosity. The operation behind these technologies has always aroused my curiosity. Later, when the opportunity to do computer science at university arose, I seized it.” 

Noting some challenges, Fatoumata indicated that as a woman in a male-dominated area of IT, she is faced with gender-related impediments. She said “It can be difficult to evolve in this professional environment where the majority are men.  As a woman, one may face unique barriers in the IT industry, such as work-life balance. For example, being more likely to take time off to care for our families can affect career progression.  It is important to recognize that women have an important place in the information technology industry and must be treated fairly and justly.  Conscious efforts should be made to remove barriers and promote an inclusive and diverse work environment for all.” In spite of these challenges, her family has been a robust support system for her growth and career path. 

In the future, Fatoumata seeks to further broaden her horizon in IT and its related fields. She looks forward to commercializing her research on a large scale for maximum impact. She believes that with the necessary support and mentorship, women possess the ability to provide solutions and positively impact the digital sector.  

Building Towards a Vibrant Biotech Start-up Ecosystem in West Africa

Since 2018, WACCBIP began a series of efforts to engage local biotech industries. In the process, the Centre discovered that the biotech ecosystem in Ghana, and by extension, in West Africa, are less dynamic and had little capacity for the uptake of biomedical innovation originating from Ghana. Consequently, the Centre reviewed its strategy to focus on enabling the set-up of biotech startups within Ghana and West Africa. This led to the creation of a cancer immunogenetics start-up, Yemaachi Biotech, a brainchild of a WACCBIP research fellow, Dr. Yaw Bediako.  WACCBIP closely supported the start-up and has since partnered with Yemaachi in some of its COVID-19 studies. Yemaachi Biotech, which has raised over $ 4 million, in 2022 performed the first human exome sequencing in Ghana.   

To inspire and enable the next generation of the indigenous biotech industry, the Centre’s first step is the develop a Biotech Entrepreneurship programme in collaboration with the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) Innovation Hub, and the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST). The programme will encapsulate a training course, and a business incubation programme, run concurrently. In addition, the centre is implementing a small projects scheme to provide funding support to innovative, industry relevant research projects proposed and run by WACCBIP students and faculty: 

  1. The Essentials of Biotech Entrepreneurship Training Course- The Biotech Entrepreneurship Training Course is a one-month sessional course with at least 7 contact sessions. The course will have an in-person format with expert facilitators sourced from our training partners.  
  2. The Business Incubation Programme will be a 3-month business ideation and pitch development programme. Outstanding trainees from the training course, as well as other WACCBIP students and alumni with good business ideas, from the training course will be selected for the incubation programme. The incubation programme will provide advanced training in entrepreneurship, product development, finance, etc. Through the incubation process, trainees will develop their products and develop their business models under the mentorship of experienced scientists and biotech industry experts. At the end of the training programme, trainees will have prototypes and feasible business models, ready for execution. The final stage of the programme is a final pitch competition amongst the trainees, to select the most well-developed and feasible ideas for funding. Seed funding will be awarded to selected, outstanding business pitch ideas.   
  3. The ‘small projects’ scheme is a funding scheme for innovative, and industry-relevant research projects led by WACCBIP students and faculty. Each year, students and faculty members will be allowed to submit projects, which have the potential to be taken up by the industry. These projects will be screened, with the projects demonstrating the greatest potential, selected for funding.  

 Moreover, through several networks, WACCBIP is driving innovation in the West African sub region. The centre joins, lead and co-lead a number of projects aimed at enhancing South-South Collaborations and through these are helping to build the innovative capacity of other partners. Currently, WACCBIP is a vaccine development hub for the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), as well as a coordinating centre for the West African Network of Infectious Disease ACEs (WANIDA). The centre has leveraged these to train partner institutions in Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin and Togo in next-generation sequencing techniques. 

CEALT Students Win 2023 AUF Hackathon for Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Students of the Centre of Excellence in Logistics and Transport (CEALT) hosted by the University of Djibouti once again emerged winners in the 2023 Hackathon organized by the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). Represented by a team of five-  Mr Aboubaker Yassin Cheik-Frah (MSc Civil Engineering), Mr Kadar Youssouf Ahmed (MSc Civil Engineering), Mr Mohamed Saïd Mahamoud (MSc Electrical and Energy Engineering), Mr Abdi Omar Obsieh (MSc Electrical and Energy Engineering)
Ms Oumoukaltoum Youssouf Ahmed (DUT- Commerce, Option marketing technology), CEALT competed against Universities of Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt, and other universities in Lebanon.  

Noting the existing timing and scheduling challenges in the Djibouti public transport system, the CEALT team developed Baskaagi – an AI powered application that tracks and provides real-time bus routes, schedules and delays, while providing tailored planning features. 

Baskaagi aims to make life easier for citizens by giving them access to real-time information on bus services and optimising their routes to save users time, while improving their travel experience. In the long term, Baskaagi could be a widely used application across East Africa, benched on cutting-edge technologies to help improve transport infrastructure and create new economic opportunities for the local people.

Baskaagi represents a promising initiative to solve public transport problems in Djibouti and across East Africa, using technological innovation and artificial intelligence to improve the accessibility and efficiency of public transport services. 

The Hackathon provided a unique opportunity for the teams to create innovative projects that explored possibilities offered by Artificial Intelligence to respond to key challenges in the priority areas of Logistics and Transport, Health, Economy and Education. The teams were selected following a competitive and rigorous selection process including idea pitching.  The selected teams also benefited from training and coaching sessions held to nurture their ideas and potential.  

CEALT’s sterling performance at the Hackathon is worthy of note since it is not the centre’s first win. In 2022, the centre’s EcoLAIR project was announced as the winner at the AUF Hackathon. Aimed at promoting waste recycling, the EcoLAIR- an air conditioning system was created from recycled bottles.  

CEALT continues provides quality training relevant to producing the next generation of engineers and IT specialists needed to bridge developmental gaps through research and innovations. 

Empowering the Next Generation of Innovators: The CEALT creative space- Fablab (Djibouti)

The Centre of Excellence in Logistics and Transport (CEALT) at the University of Djibouti hosts a state-of-the-art creative space- an open access fabrication lab (fab lab) with advanced technology for project creation. The fab lab offers open-source software and hardware for designing, prototyping and product manufacturing. Accessible to the university community and CEALT’s external partners, it allows for a fast concept-to-creation process for the students at the University of Djibouti. 

Aimed at unlocking students’ potential and creativity, the Fablab empowers students with digital design skills, prototyping tools, and new digital technology access for entrepreneurship and research project development, as well as providing a hands-on, accessible environment. The fab lab has been instrumental in fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders. Key activities of the fab lab include research projects, conferences and workshops, intellectual support for students and teachers as well as exhibitions. 

Since its establishment in 2019, over 150 students have received training and mentorship with more than 50 training workshops and other activities organized each year. In line with bolstering entrepreneurship, four start-ups were established in 2022 to further nurture students’ innovations. Two awards (Hackathons) have been won from the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and Africa Innovations Week in recognition of ground-breaking innovations from the fab lab. The fab lab is not made accessible only to the university community, however, other individuals with a keen interest in technology are allowed to cultivate their interests through visits and trainings. Over 100 high school students have visited the fab lab to explore activities undertaken.

The CEALT fab lab is part of a global consortium of 1750 fab labs working collaboratively to offer the necessary resources and tools to enable a digitally dynamic and growing world. Other strategic partnerships have been established to further propel the activities of the lab as well as provide technical backstopping when necessary. These include: 

  • Technical partnership with the National Union of Djiboutian Women in the framework of the awareness campaign against Female Genital Mutilation and HIV AIDS 
  • Partnerships with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Innovation (MENI) and the World Bank in the implementation of the National Innovation Strategy 
  • Training and research collaboration with the American Embassy via Morgan State University. 

The Centre of Excellence in Logistics and Transport (CEALT) is one of the 53 centres of excellence established to address developmental challenges in priority areas in the region. With over 30% regional students’ population, the centre is dedicated to equipping its students with specialized training and research tools and knowledge in contributing to improving transport and logistics in the region. 

WACCI (Ghana) Establishes Kofi Annan Enterprise Hub to Unlock Students Entrepreneurial Skills

Background 

The Africa Higher Education Centres for Development Impact project aims to propel entrepreneurship and innovation. Through disbursement linked indicator 5.3 (DLI 5.3), ACE Impact Centres are expected to prioritize innovation and entrepreneurship as part of their activities. Entrepreneurship and innovation are related concepts that go hand in hand. IThrough support from the ACE for Development Impact project, the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) runs postgraduate programmes to train Plant Breeders at the PhD level at the University of Ghana focusing on Agronomy, Pathology, Entomology, Genetics and Plant Breeding, Post-harvest Technology, Horticulture, Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship and Agricultural Extension. WACCI aspires to become an African Centre of Excellence for Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship and is committed to quality assurance and is guided by the core values of excellence, integrity, commitment to people, culture of mentoring, accountability, and shared governance.  Through the establishment of the Kofi Annan Enterprise Hub for Agricultural Innovation (KAEHAI) in 2019, the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) has achieved great strides in strengthening entrepreneurship and innovation in its programmes.    

KAEHAI was established by WACCI, and the University of Ghana with the aim of contributing to food and nutrition security in Africa by delivering innovations to agricultural value chain actors especially farmers and creating employment opportunities to empower the youth. The Hub also partners with strategic local and international organisations to drive agricultural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa through entrepreneurship. KAEHAI was named after His Excellency Kofi Annan for his instrumental role in giving visibility to youth-empowering projects while serving as Board Chair for the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the institution that provided initial funding for the establishment of WACCI.   

Activities undertaken by KAEHAI 

KAEHAI has launched 4 impactful programmes since its inception, and these are:

  1. WACCI-MIT Global Startup Labs 
  2. Conversations on Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship 
  3. KAEHAI-ECE Entrepreneurship Training Programme 
  4. KAEHAI – KGL Foundation Incubator Programme 

WACCI-MIT Global Startup Labs

KAEHAI partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA to organize a five-week Summer Entrepreneurship Programme at WACCI in 2019. The initiative, dubbed “Global Startup Labs (GSL) Entrepreneurship Programme”, was an intensive course designed to take students through the process of starting a company, to expose them to relevant entrepreneurship lessons and to improve their technical skills. The GSL programme was founded by MIT to cultivate young technology entrepreneurs all over the world and the curriculum was modelled after incubator courses at MIT and covered two major topics, namely (1) Entrepreneurship & Business Skills and (2) Technical Skills. Out of over 100 applications, 29 applicants were competitively selected and invited to participate in the programme at no cost. At the end of the period, the teams pitched their innovative ideas to a panel of judges consisting of potential investors from the Greater Accra Agricultural and Entrepreneurship communities. 

Conversations on Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship

As part of conversations on agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship KAEHAI hosted Mr. Alhassan Andani, CEO and Executive Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana Ltd, during its maiden edition in October 2020. This first edition featured theaward-winning journalist (Mr. Joseph Opoku Gakpo) as host of the discussion between Mr. Andani and Professor Eric Danquah, Director of WACCI, on the topic: Funding Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Scientific Innovations: The Role of the Private Sector, Government and Philanthropic Organizations. The programme forms part of a series of planned agricultural policy dialogues initiated to host agribusiness executives, policymakers, politicians, the diplomatic corps, and other influential stakeholders to discuss issues on the transformation of agriculture in Ghana.  

KAEHAI-ECE Entrepreneurship Training Programme

KAEHAI in collaboration with the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, organized a five-day Entrepreneurship Training Programme in 2021.  This programme was developed with the aim of introducing the basic principles and concepts underlying the entrepreneurship process to empower students, young graduates and new entrepreneurs to apply these to their entrepreneurial projects and startups.  The curriculum was developed by select faculty from the WACCI, University of Ghana Business School, Crop Science and Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics Departments of the University of Ghana in collaboration with the ECE and the Dutch Centers for Entrepreneurship (DutchCE) following a six-week virtual Entrepreneurship Skills “Train the trainer” workshop. Twenty-four students from the above-mentioned units of the University of Ghana participated in the programme. The programme wrapped up with a Pitch Day competition, during which nine teams pitched innovative ideas before a jury panel comprising academics from the University of Ghana and representatives from entrepreneurial support organizations active in Accra. 

KAEHAI – KGL Foundation Incubator Programme

The KAEHAI – KGL Foundation Incubator Programme is a 5-year project to be launched in 2023. The project seeks to address the challenge of youth unemployment by bringing together like-minded individuals from the private and public sectors to provide training and support to students. The model will create opportunities to mentor participants to become entrepreneurs with relevant and appropriate ideas, networks, and support services. This will help trained youth to drive innovation and new product development for agricultural transformation in Ghana. This will be achieved by operationalizing an incubator programme at KAEHAI, in partnership with the KGL Foundation, to train a critical mass of young agribusiness entrepreneurs. It is anticipated that there will be at least 20 agribusiness startups successfully established by the end of the project, providing job opportunities for the youth in Ghana.  

Evidence of the impact of KAEHAI through the WACCI-MIT Global Startup Labs

Mr Evans Larbi participated in the WACCI-MIT Global Startup Lab (GSL) programme in 2019 and described it as a ‘life-changing experience’. Prior to the programme, Evans worked as a smallholder farmer in Agomeda, Accra. During the training, he and his team were ranked second during the final business plan pitches. He then proceeded to use the knowledge he gained to establish the Beit Farms Company together with a group of young graduates who had been exposed to agricultural innovations and agribusiness. In his own words, Evans tells us how the WACCI-MIT GSL platform enabled him to develop practical skills,

“I have been able to build more networks and reach more customers, as well as develop innovative initiatives that will help transform and scale up businesses along the entire agricultural value chain”.

Beit Farms currently employs 20 field workers and 4 permanent staff working on his 25-acre vegetable farm in Agomeda, where he produces onions, tomatoes, cabbages, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, okro, chilli pepper and sweet pepper. In 2021 Beit Farms won the Bizz Hybrid Excellence Award by the World Confederation of Businesses.   

Evans also received additional training through the National Smallholder Farmers’ Summit at WACCI, and the WACCI Maize Workshop – and had the opportunity to share his experiences with other farmers and key stakeholders along the maize value chain. After the maize workshop Evans created DUAPA a mobile app to help farmers in Ghana and Africa to have access to ready markets, creditors, advisories and information on farm research activities.  Following the various trainings, Evans has also registered a cooperative group called the Beit Smallholder Farmers Association with a membership of over 60,000 farmers across Ghana and 80% being women and youth. Since its establishment a little over 3 years ago, the Kofi Annan Enterprise Hub for Agricultural Innovation (KAEHAI) is clearly demonstrating great strides towards advancing entrepreneurship and innovation skills for students at the University of Ghana and for youth in Ghana as a whole. Entrepreneurship and innovation skills development are critical in solving the unemployability challenges faced by youth in Africa.  KAEHAI is also a clear demonstration of how WACCI is delivering on the important disbursement linked indicator 5.3 as is expected under the Africa Higher Education Centres for Development Impact Project.

CEA-MITIC (Senegal) Promotes Green Technology Through Transformative Research

The Centre of Excellence in Mathematics and ICT (CEA-MITIC) hosted by Gaston Berger University (UGB) of Saint-Louis in Senegal actively develops human capital through its Masters and PhD ICT degree programmes and short courses, strengthening research capacities in the areas of secure networks and systems with mobility (including the Internet of Things); modeling of complex systems; materials-components-systems; mathematics and modeling; and computer systems and knowledge (including artificial intelligence). MITIC aims to develop strong and relevant research activities that can solve developmental challenges  impacting Africa, produce knowledge and innovative solutions connected with the productive sectors of agriculture, environment, health, and the digital economy. 

MITIC  is spearheading the Saint-Louis Digital 2025 project. The project engaged all departments at UGB, as well as local authorities in the Saint Louis region, to develop the city as an industrial center based on digital technology.    

Green technology and climate have also incresingly become key areas of research pursued at MITIC. In an article published on the EARTH.ORG website, green technology is defined as “the type and use of technology that are considered environmentally friendly based on its production process or its supply chain, which as a result reduces our carbon footprint“. 

The April 2022 climate change report on mitigation of climate change by the Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s appropriately emphasized that: “Digital technologies can promote large increases in energy efficiency through coordination and an economic shift to services …”. 

MITIC has produced several impactful research outputs toward promoting green technology and climate change adaptation and mitigation. 

  1. MITIC is involved in the following green technology research: reduction of energy consumption of electronic devices through implementation of biodegradable electronic circuits and devices; energy recovery from agricultural residues by gasification for electricity production; and has installed a pseudo-gasification reactor to champion waste to energy technologies.
  2. The case of incomplete meteorological data: To mitigate climate change and green technology MITIC analysed missing meteorological data from the Senegal databases. Climate change studies and mitigation require complete and reliable meteorological databases to analyse climate indications, monitor its evolution, and accurately predict future variations. MITIC evaluated 5 methods and found that that the missForest method was able to reconstruct temperature data most accurately. The significance of this study on green technology and climate change mitigation was that the Senegal meteorological data from 1973 to 2020 could be reconstructed to support the readiness of Senegal to alleviate climate change impacts. 
  3. Malaria community-based early-warning systems and adaptation strategies:
    Illnesses that are transmitted by organisms that act as routes such as mosquitoes, flies, ticks are sensitive to climate and weather conditions. MITIC examined malaria data from the Senegal National Malaria Control Program and outputs from climate data and compared these data sets. The findings revealed that seasonal malaria transmission was closely associated with the variation of the rainfall. This study revealed that the peak of malaria takes place from September to October, with a lag of around one month from the peak of rainfall in Senegal. These results indicated that the southern part of Senegal was at the highest risk of malaria epidemics. The conclusions in the paper are projected to guide community-based early-warning systems and adaptation strategies in Senegal. These strategies would strengthen the Senegal national malaria prevention, response strategies, and care strategies that are tailored to the needs of local communities.
  4. Weather forecasting using the Ensemble machine learning model.
    Machine Learning is one of the technologies used in agriculture for weather forecasting, crop disease detection and other applications. Machine learning entails computers learning from data provided so that they carry out certain tasks. MITIC conducted research to develop Machine Learning-based models designed to handle daily weather forecasting for rainfall, relative humidity, and maximum and minimum temperature in Senegal. In this research, MITIC compared ten Machine Learning Regressors with their Ensemble Model. These models were evaluated based on mean absolute error, mean squared error, root mean squared error and coefficient of determination. The results showed that the Ensemble Model performed better than the other models. The importance of this study affirmed that the Ensemble machine learning model could support the protection of the environment through accurate weather forecasting in Senegal.
       
  5. An IoT based system for pollution prediction and assessment. 
    MITIC developed a distributed and intelligent system to assess and predict pollution in Southern Senegal. The Internet of Things (IoT) intelligent platform assesses the impact of incineration in public dumps of households and similar waste, as well as the impact of burning sugar cane on the health of populations. The system collects data on the type of atmospheric pollutants resulting from the incineration of garbage in the communities of Saint Louis and Richard Toll. The research also analysed the possible links between types of pollutants (that is, CO, CO2, NO, NO2, PM10, PM2.5, PM1, black carbon, and volatile organic compounds) and respiratory diseases (Asthma, Acute Respiratory Infections, and Meningitis). The platform is an IoT Fog/Edge network that distributes computation, communication, control, and storage closer to the end users along the cloud-to-things continuum. The relevance of fog/edge is entrenched in both the inadequacy of the traditional cloud and the emergence of new opportunities for the Internet of Things, fifth generation cellular network standards (5G) and embedded artificial intelligence. This MITIC study demonstrates the use of high-end computer science technologies to address pollution challenges and associated health challenges.
  6. Energy Efficiency related research
    MITIC is also involved in research on “low energy consumption” by studying the reduction of energy consumption of electronic devices through implementation of biodegradable electronic circuits and devices. MITIC is also working on energy recovery from agricultural residues by gasification and the evaluation of the potential of different crop residues. The research also evaluated the gasification systems for electricity production and tested / optimized the selected models. MITIC has installed a pseudo-gasification reactor to champion waste to energy technologies. MITIC has optimized biogas production from residues obtained after the processing of fish products. This research aims to solve the problem related to waste management, in particular fish product residues. The goal is to develop a biogas production industry from fish waste. 

The research by MITIC clearly demonstrates their leadership in the areas of green technologies and climate change mitigation through high-end research. Green technologies based on internet of things, machine learning and artificial intelligence have been developed by MITIC to improve weather forecasting, assess pollution and develop energy efficient devices. Through quality research MITIC has also supported the reconstruction of Senegal’s meteorological data and developed malaria early warning systems. 

CEFTER, Nigeria Tackles Post Harvest Loss in the Sub-region through Improved Technologies

The lack of adequate capacity and technologies to protect harvest in the Africa sub-region have resulted in an annual post-harvest loss estimated between 35-50 percent of food produced (Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Network (FANRPAN), Globally, ending poverty, increasing food and nutrition security, and promoting responsible consumption and production are part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1, 2 and 12 respectively.  

Inspired by their mandate as empowered by the World Bank ACE program,  the Centre for Food Technology and Research (CEFTER) has committed significant resources in the direction of propelling intellectual contributions towards the ultimate control of post-harvest losses in west and central Africa. CEFTER is rewriting the continent’s history with its innovative research outcomes.  These efforts have resulted in the production of life-changing technological innovations targeted at rural farmers to enhance the agricultural value chain and strengthen food security generally within the sub-Saharan Africa. 

Specifically, CEFTER has powered game-changing innovations aimed at improving soybeans cultivation and processing for optimal market efficiency such as the introduction of soya oil, and soya milk. Based on the innovative research findings from the center, the formulation of nutritional yoghurt from soybean was birthed. Subsequently, CEFTER has set up a factory for yoghurt production, contributing significantly to enhancing the livelihoods of target farming communities.  

Through the centre’s Post Graduate Hub, resources have been mobilized to coordinate the design and fabrication of a thermal solar dryer for vegetables and fruit processing. This innovation provides a healthy and fast method of drying food items like yam, cassava, and potatoes, amongst other crops and others.  

With intentions of commercializing the initiative, a pilot-scale consumer-based study has been carried out to enable the Centre to review notes and launch the commercial version in significant quantities. This version when completed will be used by the Center’s agricultural extension team to sensitize farmers and prepare the market to accommodate the technology in line with the expected outcomes of the project. The machine was exhibited at the National Technology Innovation Expo in Abuja in March 2021.  

Cassava is a food item that is produced in large quantities across west and central Africa. In Nigeria over the years, the demand for this multi-purpose product has been far below the supply, thus leading to a significant waste of this all-important food product. To help situate efforts in this regard, Cassava Cookies, CEFTER-sponsored research by Dorcas Nguemo Kundama student, on the use of cassava flour for the production of cookies was introduced through rigorous laboratory tests. This has been subsequently approved for production in commercial quantities. Through this research, a highly nutritious cassava-based cookie has been formulated by our students. The cookies are being supplemented as part of homegrown feeding programmes for pupils under the Federal Government of Nigeria, thus yielding good revenue for the Centre. 

Some other notable innovations produced by the CEFTER include: Freeze drier, Fish processing machine, Motorized groundnut shelling machine and threshers, fruit juice pasteurizer, Ohmic heating system and pulsed electric field equipment for pasteurization of milk and juice, solar driers, as well as integrated energy driers.  

In strict compliance with conventional digital trends, CEFTER recently launched the e-agricultural extension network to fill in the gap and mediate between other relevant agricultural agencies whose activities directly impact rural farmers. To this end, over 300 volunteer e-extension workers were trained on various aspects of the project, connecting farmers to relevant information that would enhance agricultural practices and inspire the application of agricultural research findings. 

To end the constant frustrations that rural farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural businesses face in the hands of middlemen in agro-business, CEFTER in collaboration with other partners, launched the CEFTER e-commerce Platform for small, medium, and large-scale farmers, with customers comprising of wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. The technology has the central objective of making agribusiness simple, fast, secure, and affordable. The technology has been deployed and the experiential testimonies from both farmers and consumers are heartwarming. Farmers get value for their products, waste is significantly reduced, and buyers can be easily located on the platform,  

Another area of impact is the short-term courses developed by the centre. So far, about 1437 participants have benefited from these courses, stretching from national and regional communities. 65 people benefited from a regional training on Basic Food hygiene and safety was organized in 2021. Southern Cameroon is in crisis with a large majority of it’s population displaced due to drought and food scarcity. The people living in displaced communities and internally displaced peoples (IDP) camps are vulnerable to food-borne diseases and contaminations. The training created awareness among the IDPs and refugees to be able to innovatively store and process food in better hygienic conditions. The training further covered topics such as the processing of Yam and Plantain, as well as the making of Sanitizers.

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