During the month of October 2022, the Africa Centre of Excellence in Oilfield Chemicals Research (ACE-CEFOR), University of Port Harcourt, took part in the 3rd West Africa Centres of Excellence on Energy Network (WACEENET) Regional Symposium, which took place from Tuesday, October 11 to Wednesday October 12, 2022 at the Songhai Farms, Porto Novo, Benin Republic.
The theme of the symposium was “Sustainable Energy Development: A Future for Africa”. The symposium featured a goodwill message from World Bank subject matter expert, Prof Joseph Mutale. The Keynote address was given by Rev. Fr. Prof. Godfrey Nzamujo, CEO Songhai Farms. The symposium also featured academic faculty presentations by staff of the five Centres of WACEENET on the theme of the symposium. ACE-CEFOR Safeguards Officer, Dr. Victor Aimikhe, presented on behalf of the Centre. His presentation was titled, “Sustainable Development of Hydrocarbons in Africa in the Clean Energy Transition Agenda.” There were also presentations from one student of each Centre. ACE-CEFOR was represented by PhD student, Mrs. Debra Oahimire. Mrs. Oahimire’s presentation was titled, “Sustainable Development of Oil and Gas Production in Africa: Harnessing Local Raw Materials.” Both days of the symposium featured extensive excursions around Songhai Farms where Rev. Fr. Nzamujo showed practical examples of sustainable energy development as done in Songhai Farms. ACE-CEFOR was represented at the symposium by Centre Leader, Prof. Ogbonna Joel, Deputy Centre Leader, Prof. Ikechukwu Agbagwa, Safeguards Officer, Dr. Victor Aimikhe, Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, Mr. Uduma Ikpa and PhD student, Mrs. Debra Oahimire.
WACEENET, a group of Energy and Power Thematic ACE Impact Centres, is made up of Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED), Nigeria; Regional Centre of Excellence on Energy and Sustainability (RCEES), Ghana; Africa Centre of Excellence for Future Energy Systems (ACE-FUELS), Nigeria; Centre d’Excellence Régional pour la Maîtrise de l’Electricité (CERME), Togo; and Africa Centre of Excellence for Oilfield Chemicals Research (ACE-CEFOR), Nigeria.
