News

The Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), Professor Eric Y.

A WACCI graduate and two students, Dr. Some Koussao (Cohort 1, Burkina Faso), Mr. Ernest Baafi (Cohort 3, Ghana) and Mr. Afuape Solomon Olufemi (Cohort 5, Nigeria), all sweetpotato breeders in their respective home countries have participated in the 14th Annual Sweet potato Breeders Meeting held in Uganda from June 2 to 5, 2015.

Centre leaders and other delegates of the five agricultural Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) under the Association of African Universities (AAU) - led World Bank (WB) ACE project have unanimously endorsed the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) as the front-runner of the World Bank-funded project.

Ten WACCI students from six countries have successfully defended their PhD theses at the School of Graduate Studies, University of Ghana. They comprised nine students from the 3rd cohort and one from the 4th cohort.

Mr. Strive Masiyiwa, Board Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa  (AGRA) and Chief Executive Officer of Econet Wireless International together with some members of the AGRA Board including the President of AGRA, Dr.

Mr. Olumide Alabi, a second year PhD student at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana, has participated in the 2015 Spring School course on ‘Plant Phenotyping Workshop’ organised by the European Plant Phenotyping Network (EPPN) from March 9-13, 2015.

The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) will host Dr. Evans Lagudah of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Plant Industry, from March 12 – 13, 2015 to deliver an advanced module on “Genomics for Accelerated Plant Breeding”.

The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) has commissioned an External Review Panel to evaluate the initial 10-year phase of the AGRA-funded project and make recommendations for transforming WACCI into a sustainable Centre of Excellence.

Professor Kwame Offei, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, University of Ghana has inaugurated a new facility to be used as a bioinformatics platform and a lecture room at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI).

The 13 Cohort 7 students of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), have presented their PhD theses research proposals.

One of the most outstanding graduates of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), Dr Beatrice Elohor Ifie, was appointed as a Research Fellow at WACCI in September 2014. She was part of the second cohort of students that have graduated from the WACCI programme.

Professor Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, nominated by Government, has been appointed Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Mines and Technology.  He was sworn in with other members of the reconstituted Council recently by the Minister of Education, Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang at a sho

The second cohort of 10 students of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), graduated from the University of Ghana, Legon, with PhDs in Plant Breeding at the graduation ceremony held on July 26, 2014 at the Great Hall of the University.

Professor Rita Mumm, Founding Director of the Illinois Plant Breeding Centre at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA, and Education lead on the USAID programme on Soybean Innovation Laboratory (SIL), has paid a five-day visit to the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) at

Abdalla Dao, a graduate of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana, Legon, has participated in the 2014 Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, a new flagship program of President Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Dr.