THE CHAIRMAN OF THE WASEND ADVISORY BOARD VISITS 2iE

 

From left:Dr. Marie SAWADOGO, Mr. Saidou DIAWARA, Mr. Amarquaye Armar, Prof.  Harouna KARAMBIRI, Prof. K. Edem N’TSOUKPOE and Léa FULLOY

 

The Chairman of the Advisory Board of the West Africa Sustainable Engineering Network for Development (WASEND) and Chairman of the First Atlantic Bank, Mr. Amarquaye Armar visited the 2iE Campus in Kamboinsé on June 21 2022 to meet with the training and research team leads in the renewable energies section of the 2iE Institute.

Mr. Armar was accompanied by Mr. Saidou Diawara, co-founder and former Managing Director of Faso Energy, a photovoltaic module assembly industry in Burkina Faso.

As a reminder, WASEND is a network of four engineering schools (KNUST in Ghana, EPAC in Benin, GTTI in Gambia and 2iE in Burkina Faso), all are African Centers of Excellence (ACE) of the World Bank. The network aims to enhance the individual contribution of these members to the knowledge economy, building on the synergies of these members to encourage peer-to-peer learning through active partnerships between members. This approach is essential for strengthening innovation, accelerating scientific research activities rooted in world-class academic practices and strengthening the links between the four Centers of Excellence.

The meeting was chaired by Prof. Harouna Karambiri, Director of Research at 2iE, together with Prof. K. Edem N’Tsoukpoe, Coordinator of the 2iE College of Engineering (CoE-2iE), Dr. Marie Sawadogo, Head of the Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency Laboratory (LabEREE) and Léa Fulloy, CIRAD engineer present.

Mr. Karambiri gave a presentation on the 2iE Institute followed by a brief presentation on the CoE-2iE by Prof. N’Tsoukpoe.

Participants discussed concrete actions which are feasible for the Colleges of Engineering to implement to improve impact. Mr. Armar suggested that WASEND plays a bigger role in the launch of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) by partnering with Faso Energy to offer training programs and research as well as high quality services to other public or private services in the West African sub-region. A unifying project, which will involve the Colleges of Engineering of the WASEND network and various public (WAPP) and private players in the field of renewable energies, is currently being prepared, he stated.

The visit ended with Mr. Armar’s wish to return to visit 2iE’s infrastructures and laboratories in the field of energy and civil engineering.

 

The discussions took place in an atmosphere marked by great cordiality.