Three of the 10 Africa Centres of Excellence in Nigeria, which focus on Agriculture (Centre for Food Technology and Research (CEFTER), Benue State University, Makurdi; Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Development and Sustainable Environment (CEADESE), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA), Bayero University, Kano), along with their counterparts in Ghana, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire, have been commended for being a visionary team.
The commendation came from a World Bank Expert, Carl Larsen, at the opening of a joint training workshop, organised by the six Agriculture ACEs in West Africa: the three in Nigeria as well as the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana, Legon; Centre of Excellence on Avian Science (CERSA), University of Lome, Togo; and the Centre on Climate Change Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture (CCBAD), Felix Houphoet Boigny University, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; in collaboration with the World Bank and the National Universities Commission (NUC).
Larsen, who spoke on behalf of the resource persons, thanked CEFTER for hosting and all participants for attending the workshop. He said he was particularly impressed with the collaboration between the Agriculture ACEs in West Africa, noting that this was in line with the aim of the ACE project, which is to, jointly promote regional collaboration and specialisation, to address particular common regional developmental challenges. He, therefore, urged the Centres to keep it up. The workshop, he said, was planned to be engaging and to facilitate knowledge sharing, where all ideas would be united for better understanding.
Other speakers at the opening ceremony also commended the six Centres for collaborating and synergising to achieve their goals and objectives, calling on all other Centres (which focus on Health, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to emulate them.
Welcoming the participants, the Vice Chancellor of BSU, Prof. Moses Msugh Kembe, commended the ACEs for coming together to organise the training, saying the workshop could not have come at a better time than now when teaching and learning required the application of new technology-driven techniques, when sustainable funding of educational programmes remained a major challenge in many institutions and also when so much desire had been expressed for the attainment of gender balance at all levels of education.
Benue State Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon. James Anbua, who was represented by the Director of Agricultural Services, Dr. Thomas Unongu, declared the workshop open. He said, among other things, that the State was proud to have a Centre of Excellence in Agriculture, for which it was well known, sited at its University. According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture was working very hard to maintain Benue State’s status as the Food Basket of the country and urged CEFTER to partner with the Ministry to maintain it. He thanked the participants and resource persons for coming and wished them a successful training.
The Leader of CDA, Professor Jubrin M. Jubrin affirmed the university managements commitment to the ACE project, which informed its constitution of a strong team to participate in the workshop. He thanked the host Centre and informed the meeting that CDA aimed to be a regional Centre of Excellence in teaching, research and development in agriculture, especially in dry land.
Leader of CEADESE, Professor Onagbesan Okanlawon, who was represented by Professor Babatunde Adewumi, also thanked CEFTER, saying CEADESE was excited to be participating in the workshop because of the opportunity it afforded CEADESE to acquire new knowledge in delivering one of its goals, which was to generate environmentally-smart agricultural innovations and patents in various fields of expertise and in sustainable environment.
Representative of the Centre Leader of WACCI, Professor Eric Danquah, thanked the host and the experts for organising the workshop. He gave a brief introduction of his Centre and expressed his team’s high expectations of the outcome of the workshop.
Leader of the Regional Centre for Avian Sciences (CERSA), Lome, Dr. Jacob Tona, who was represented by Professor Agbonon Amegnona gave a brief overview of his Centre and wished for a successful and profitable workshop for all present.
The Centre Leader for the ACE in Climate Change Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture (CCBAD), Cote d’Ivoire, Mr. Kouame Nguessan Francois, thanked the host and, like his counterparts, gave a brief overview of his Centre and expressed hope for a profitable workshop.
The Leader of CEFTER, Professor D. K. Adedzwa, welcomed everyone and thanked his Vice Chancellor for the support to the Centre. He also expressed similar hope as his colleagues on the outcomes of the training.
The week-long workshop, with the theme, Innovative Teaching and Learning, Fund Raising and Gender Balance in Education, had participants drawn from the six Centres, NUC and some of CEFTER’s partner institutions, the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi; University of Mkar, Benue State and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, among others.
The training format was interactive, with few presentations and ample time for discussions, exchange of ideas among participants and practical work in groups. Participants discussed issues, such as areas for improvement; project sustainability; institutional commitment to the Project; and promoting university-industry linkages.
Days Two to Five of the training workshop featured Sessions 1 and 2 on each day and covered topics, such as Smart Classroom (IT-supported teaching/learning), Fundraising (how to approach sustainable fundraising in ACE), Didactics (implementation of research-based teaching in higher education) and Gender (how to improve female enrolment in ACEs).
Other resource persons were Professor Jens Dolin and Assistant Professor Jesper Bruun, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Mrs. Titlope Fakoya, a Consusltant Gender Adviser and Trainer; Professor Raphael Wahome, University of Nairobi, Kenya and Mrs. Betty Kajoh of Excel Education Global Consult.
Guests and participants at the opening ceremony of the Joint Training