Twenty-three students of the West African Centre for Water, Irrigation and Sustainable Agriculture (WACWISA)-University for Development Studies (UDS), from seven African countries, have graduated with various degrees during the university’s 24th congregation, held in Tamale.
They included two PhD, and 21 Master’s Degree students from Benin, DR Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria Rwanda, and Uganda.
The graduation ceremony was graced by Professor Ahmed Abdulai Jinapor, Acting Director-General of Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Mr Rurangwa Theophile, Deputy High Commissioner of Rwanda to Ghana, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, and Mr Yidana Zakaria, North East Regional Minister.
Professor Felix Kofi Abagale, Director of WACWISA-UDS, interacting with the graduates after the ceremony, expressed excitement at their feat, saying WACWISA was proud working with them, and supporting human capacity development.
Professor Abagale encouraged the graduates not to relent on their efforts
in innovation and research, aimed at supporting and contributing to addressing challenges associated with agriculture, climate change, food security and development in Africa.
Whilst thanking the staff of WACWISA as well as the various university stakeholders for their continued support, Professor Abagale expressed appreciation to funding agencies, partners and collaborators of the Centre, including the Government of Ghana, World Bank, Association of African Universities, GTEC, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNIDO, EU, GIZ, IRD/AFD, JICA amongst others.
He underscored the need to strengthen the collaborations and further support for research and capacity building.
With funding support from the World Bank and the Government of Ghana, WACWISA was established in 2019 by the UDS as a semi-autonomous Centre of Excellence to undertake cutting-edge research and training in irrigation, drainage, water resources management, sustainable agriculture, climate change and food and nutrition security.
The Centre, w
hose tagline is ‘Building Capacities for Sustainable Solutions’ has since provided scholarships to more than 100 scholars for Master’s and PhD studies as well as trained over 500 individuals in the form of short courses and facilitating access to modern laboratory and field research facilities for the conduct of cutting-edge research in its thematic areas.
Source: Ghana News Agency