Vice Chancellor Inspects WACCI and WACCBIP Project Sites

The Vice-Chancellor interacting with the project team

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu has visited the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) and West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) to inspect the progress of work for the construction of new buildings for the two Centres.

Both constructions which were nearing completion were funded by the World Bank Africa Centers of Excellence (ACE) Project.

The WACCI multi-purpose facility constituted offices, seed science laboratory, ultramodern lecture rooms, tissue culture laboratory, cold room for seed storage, conference rooms and bioinformatics laboratory which according to the Director of WACCI, Prof. Eric Y. Danquah, would scale up the Centre’s PhD and MPhil programmes in plant breeding and seed science technology respectively upon completion.

WACCI is the top Agricultural  ACE in West and Central Africa and the leading Centre in resource mobilization among the 22 ACEs, according to the AAU and the World Bank at the recent ACE workshop.

The new multi-purpose WACCI building

Prof. Danquah thanked the Vice-Chancellor for his timely visit and believed it would impact positively on the attitude of workers towards timely completion of the project. He further appealed to the project staff and contractors to be diligent in their operations in order to avoid any form of loss to the University.

Prof. Danquah briefing the Vice-Chancellor on the progress of work

At WACCBIP, the Vice-Chancellor and his team were guided through the two-storey complex by Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of the Centre, who detailed the progress made, describing the nature and purpose of some key facilities already completed.

The team inspected the multi-purpose conference hall, a PhD lecture room, a board room, and a state-of-the-art cold room. They also inspected the progress of office spaces for the Centre’s administrative staff, and workspaces for visiting fellows and students.

The new board room at WACCBIP

The team also inspected the bioinformatics and ICT laboratories, which would be directly linked to the Centre’s High-Performance Computing Unit installed to provide access to cluster computing services, and scientific software for data analyses, modelling and simulation, and information dissemination.

Prof. Oduro Owusu and team inspecting the WACCBIP facility

The Centre when commissioned would improve diagnosis, prevention and control of infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa by providing advanced training and research excellence on cell and molecular biology of infectious pathogens.

Prof. Awandare thanked the Vice-Chancellor for taking time out of his schedule to visit the Centre. He was encouraged by the support the Centre had received from the University management since its establishment and assured the Vice- Chancellor that the Centre would continue to fly the University’s reputation for excellence.

“WACCBIP is the top ACE for biomedical research and training in the whole of West Africa and this had been possible because of the support we receive from our funders and the University. We attract the best scientist because of the top-class facilities we have and if we continue to receive such support, we would keep flying the University’s flag high all over the world.” Prof Awandare added.

Prof. Awandare debriefing the inspection team

The Vice-Chancellor commended the project team for the progress of work and was keen to point out the need to maintain the pace in order to meet the completion timelines. He was hopeful of a mid-June commissioning and handing-over as scheduled by the project contractor.

Vice Chancellor congratulating the centres and the project team

“We have an institution to preserve, not for ourselves but for the future, so let’s be mindful of the quality of work and timeliness of delivery as both are extremely important,” the Vice-Chancellor noted.

Also present was the Director of Public Affairs, Mrs. Stella A. Amoa, Director of Physical Development and Municipal Services Directorate (PDMSD), Mr. Charles Kofinti and members of the project team.