A three-member Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE) Project Supervision Mission team of the World Bank has paid a two-day working visit to UCC to acquaint themselves with the preparations being made by the University of Cape Coast to host the Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) Project.

The three officials were Prof. Mamadou Diallo and Prof. Madiodio Niasse, from the World Bank and Mr. Edmund Aalangdong, a National Focal Point of ACE at the National Council for Tertiary Education, Accra.

Background of ACECoR

The University of Cape Coast was competitively selected by the World Bank in September, 2018 to establish the Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) on its campus. The selection brings the University into a network of 44 Centres of Excellence (ACEs) in Africa approved by the World Bank to host a

Regional Centre of Excellence.

The University of Cape Coast will receive a counterpart funding to the tune of US$ 6.5 million from the World Bank and Government of Ghana to undertake the project which is supposed to be implemented within a five-year period from 2019-2023. It was against this background that the Project Supervision Mission visited UCC to learn at firsthand the progress made by the team so far.

Providing detailed explanation Prof. Diallo noted that the visit was to assess the implementation plan, inspect available facilities and equipment to boost UCCs chances of securing regular funding from the World Bank which is the major funding agency for the ACE Project. Prof. Diallo indicated that being selected host the Africa Centre of Excellence was just a step and therefore, UCC’s ACECoR team would have to prove that the University was adequately prepared to meet the framework prescribed by the World Bank in order to access funds periodically.

Purpose of ACE Project Supervision Mission

Prof. Diallo said he was confident that the UCC team would succeed in its quest to realise ACECoR’s mission as a vibrant Centre of Excellence in Africa and beyond. He urged the UCC team to show high level of commitment to make ACECoR an enviable centre where others may learn best practices from.                             

     Prof. Mamadou Diallo explaining the purpose of the visit                                                                  

Presentation by Director and other Officials of ACECoR

Briefing the Supervision Team, the Director of ACECoR, Prof. Denis W. Aheto, gave a general overview of the University of Cape Coast and indicated that UCC was well positioned to host the Centre to help address regional development challenges in coastal degradation. He said a number of structures had been put in place to ensure the smooth start of the Centre. “The University has given us seed funding to support with the preparatory activities and also provided land for the construction of the four-storey multipurpose building complex for the ACECoR,” he explained.

Prof. Denis W. Aheto briefing the Supervision team on the progress of work 

Programmes of ACECoR

According to Prof. Aheto, a number of academic programmes have been proposed at both the Masters and PhD levels in addition to short courses. “We are working with other state, regional and international institutions to develop these international programmes and seek accreditation at the national and international levels” he noted.

In terms of sustainability, Prof. Aheto said there would be an institutionalisation of academic programmes by UCC after the lifespan of the ACE Impact project.  He mentioned the diversification of funding sources of the Centre so as to continue receiving support from other organisations adding that “Internally generated incomes would be earned through fee-paying students at the postgraduate and short courses.” Prof. Aheto further indicated that   ACECoR would leverage on some of the existing projects of the Centre for Coastal Management to make the Centre functional even after the project period.

Mr. Joshua Adotey presented on the Monitoring and Evaluation plan whiles Mr. Eric Agyenim Boateng gave a report on the Financial Plan and Mr. Nicholas Ampofo presented on the Procurement Plan for ACECoR.

At the end of the deliberations, the Project Supervision Mission made some recommendations to the ACECoR team to effectively execute the project and achieve its objectives within the five-year period. The team inspected facilities of the Centre for Coastal Management including offices, laboratories and other equipment for teaching and research.

Present at the meeting were the Provost, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences,Prof. L. K. Sam-Amoah and some newly-appointed officers of ACECoR.

Courtesy Call on Vice-Chancellor

Prof. Aheto later led the Project Supervision Mission team to pay a courtesy call on the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah.

Welcoming the team, Prof. Ampiah said he was excited that UCC has won the project to host a Centre of Excellence. He was hopeful that the Project Supervision Mission would assist UCC to come out with an acceptable report adding that “We count on your support to go through the process so that UCC will meet the expectation of the World Bank”. He assured them of the commitment of Management of the University’s to the project and noted that “ We will do whatever it takes to complete the building for the Centre adding  this building will give the University another facelift”.

On behalf of the Project Support Mission, Prof. Diallo said UCC had a great team and boasts of basic structures that should propel ACECoR to succeed. He commended the Vice-Chancellor for showing commitment to the project. “Centres of Excellence that have thrived are those whose universities have provided the needed support” he stressed.

Prof. Diallo noted that investment in the project would yield multiple effects for the University. He reiterated his call to adopt strategies to admit students across the West Africa to meet the philosophy behind the establishment of the ACEs.

The College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences has celebrated its fifth Anniversary with a lecture and exhibition on the theme “The Role of Science and Technology in National Development”.

Rationale for the Anniversary Celebration

Explaining the rationale behind the anniversary celebration, the Provost of the College, Prof. Livingstone Sam-Amoah, said the programme was to celebrate the success story of CANS since the reorganisation of the University into Colleges five years ago. He said the theme for the celebration was to highlight the role that science plays in the society stressing that “Every facet of our lives is dependent on Science”. He reassured the students that they had made the right choice to study Science and its related programmes in the College.

Africa Must Add Value to Agriculture Products

Speaking on the topic “Paradigm Shift; From Subsistence Agriculture to Renewable Raw Materials, the Role of Science”, Prof. Samuel T. Sackey, from the University of Ghana, indicated that as countries develop, the population working in Agriculture decline. “While more than two-thirds of the population in poor countries work in Agriculture, less than 5% of the population is engaged in agriculture in rich countries,” he reported.

Prof. Sackey said whiles the advanced countries were adding value to agricultural products; most developing countries were still producing and even exporting raw agricultural products. He noted that “Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa and yam in the world, however, the country is not adding enough value to these crops making it difficult to derive the much needed foreign exchange for development”.  

On production of food crops, Prof. Sackey stated that there have been losses in the production of some major crops in these countries and mentioned that post-harvest losses is estimated at USD 600 trillion for developing countries.

Prof. Sackey recommended the adoption of technologies for land preparation; improved harvesting techniques for roots and tubers as well as fruits and vegetables. He further called for improvement in the packaging and transportation of roots, tubers, fruits and vegetables technologies for drying of cereals and related crops.

In order to avoid these losses, Prof. Sackey urged the College to take advantage of the deficit in crop production and develop the appropriate technology to address them.

Adopting the Science Agenda

The second speaker for the lecture, Dr. Irene Annor-Frimpong, from the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), said for Africa to meet its evolving agriculture goals, it was important for the continent to fully adopt the Science Agenda for Africa developed by the African Union in 2014.  “The Science Agenda refers to the science, technology, extension, innovation, policy and social learning Africa needs to apply in order to meet its evolving agricultural development goals” she explained.  She stated that economic growth in Africa has declined after a decade and a half of sustained growth. “This trend undermines the continents aspiration for an economic and social transformation” she observed.

Dr. Annor-Frimpong admitted that Agriculture has great potential that needed to be unlocked and Africa has good arable lands, however, there was the need to shift from the traditional agriculture to Agri-food systems. “Agri-food refers to investing in technology to boost Agriculture Production” she explained.

According to Dr. Annor-Frimpong, “the fourth industrial revolution is Artificial Intelligence” but wondered whether Africa was ready to embrace this technology.

“Africa needs to cause creative disruption to have improved way of doing things, we need to innovate around the problems to solve them” she implored.

Dr. Annor-Frimpong called on African scientists and researchers to work together to proffer solutions to the myriad of problems affecting agriculture production. She also proposed effective deployment of science and technology to address the challenges affecting agriculture production in Africa.

Curriculum Should Respond to the Needs of Industry

Touching on “Curriculum Response by Tertiary Institutions to Opportunities and Challenges in Industry” Prof. J. A. Kwarteng of the School of Agriculture, said the challenge to industry was getting appropriate skilled labour. “There is a disconnect between industry and tertiary institutions and graduates need to be abreast of issues in industry. They need to have skills as problem solvers, system thinkers, innovative, entrepreneurial and lifelong learning” he indicated.

Prof. Kwarteng entreated tertiary institutions to develop curricula that would be responsive to the needs of society since education is vital to development. He also called on scientist to demystify science for the ordinary person to understand “There are a lot of people who see science as a difficult discipline and fail to appreciate it”.

The ceremony was also used to outdoor the newly designed CANS cloth which was officially launched by the immediate past Vice-Chancellor, Prof. D. D. Kuupole. An exhibition to showcase research activities of CANS was also held at the Science Quadrangle.