RUDN University and Ghana: Common Strategy for Education-Business-Science
The Jospong Group is a conglomerate of 60 companies whose main economic activity focus lies in agriculture and waste management.
Ghana is one of the largest global agricultural producers of cocoa and yams (2nd in the world), plantain (a type of banana, 4th in the world) and palm oil (8th in the world). However, the rich in fertile land country imports most main crops and food products: wheat, potatoes and other vegetables, poultry and eggs. For example, it costs US$400 million annually to purchase rice.
The lack of qualified local specialists, dependence on equipment from Belgium, Austria, China, and the high cost of acquiring foreign technologies lead to a significant part of the agricultural area not being cultivated.
The personnel training project has been supported by the Ministry of Education of Ghana and the National Service Scheme. The main request is technologically advanced vocational education. RUDN University has experience in training personnel for Ghana - the university has trained 582 specialists: doctors, engineers, economists over its history.
The Jospong Group’s interest in Russian education, science and technology arose thanks to the Russia-Africa summit, where RUDN University presented a project for an agricultural technology park for African countries.
In its turn, RUDN University is interested in establishing a test site in Ghana to create joint varieties of agricultural crops: rice, potatoes, grains. And in the future, new varieties will be included in the List of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use in Ghana. The university will help its partners to create a seed production complex, in particular, with the laboratory of clonal micropropagation, molecular diagnostics of phytopathogens, and propagation in a greenhouse. RUDN University experts will provide consultations on selecting equipment, arranging the work of laboratories, training employees and field testers.
Prefabricated storage facilities with climate control will be installed for potato and sweet potato tubers, root vegetables, onions, and carrots by joint efforts. Infrastructure facilities will also include warehouses and complexes for drying and storing grain: rice, wheat, barley.
In terms of the environmental component, RUDN University offers expert evaluation and assessment of climate projects to build up the competencies of the Jospong team. Since the company’s enterprises have a problem with excess sewage sludge, RUDN researchers have proposed a technology for converting biomass into biofuel, which attracted the interest of the industrial partner.
Meetings were also held with partners in science and education in Ghana:
- Crops Research Institute in Kumasi;
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi; and
- Pentecost University.
The Universities are interested in academic exchanges, and double degree programmes and joint research projects in the future.
Pentecost University Vice-Chancellor Rev. Prof. Kwabena Agyapong-Kodua expressed particular interest in RUDN University postgraduate programme for his own employees: “As a private research university, we can remain competitive only if we keep abreast of cutting-edge scientific results, and working with Russian researchers will give us immense opportunities to solve applied tasks in automation of heavy industry”.
The Crops Research Institute in Kumasi showed the delegation experimental crops of over 30 of its own rice varieties. However, the main problem is pest control and control over the distribution of the resulting varieties, and researchers from the RUDN University Agrobiotechnological Department are ready to share relevant experience gained from their projects in Gambia and Uganda.
The participation of RUDN University in the international summit “Russia-Africa” made it possible to present the RUDN University potential in agriculture and ecology, which attracted the interest of a major foreign industrial partner ready to build cooperation in the chain of education - business - science.
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Russian university strikes deal to train hundreds of African students
RUDN University delegation at the ICT Group digital solutions development office with Executive Director Samuel Ofori-Gyampoh (center)
RUDN delegation at the meeting with the administration at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Masamba Kah presents a gift to Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson
RUDN University delegation at the meeting with the administration at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Director of the Agrarian and Technological Institute Agrobiotechnological Department Prof. E.N. Pakina presents a gift to the Director of the Kumasi Crops Research Institute
RUDN University delegation at the Crops Research Institute in Kumasi
Various rice varieties developed by the Kumasi Crops Research Institute are prepared for experimental planting
The employees of the Crops Research Institute of Kumasi show rice seedlings
Genetic bank of rice seeds of the Crops Research Institute of Kumasi
Genetic bank of rice seeds of the Crops Research Institute of Kumasi
Director of the Agrarian and Technological Institute Agrobiotechnological Department Prof. E.N. Pakina in the genetic bank of rice seeds of the Crops Research Institute in Kumasi
RUDN University delegation in the experimental rice field of the Crops Research Institute in Kumasi
Rice seedlings in the experimental field of the Crops Research Institute in Kumasi
RUDN University delegation in the experimental rice field of the Crops Research Institute in Kumasi
Ceremony of signing the Memorandum of Understanding and Work Programme to the Memorandum between RUDN University and the Jospong Group of Companies
Group photo at the ceremony of signing the Memorandum of Understanding and Work Programme to the Memorandum between RUDN University and the Jospong Group of Companies
Director of the International Scientific and Educational Cooperation Department M.A. Kurka, Russian Ambassador to Ghana S.L. Berdnikov, Head of the Jospong Group of Companies Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, and Asian African Consortium CEO Adelaide Araba Siaw Agyepong, photo after the ceremony of signing the agreement between RUDN University and the Jospong Group of Companies
Deputy Head of the Directorate of Strategic Development Programmes M.I. Tislenko instructs participants in the RUDN University Open Olympiad for Foreign Citizens in Ecology and Mathematics
Pentecost University students write the RUDN University Open Olympiad for Foreign Citizens in Mathematics
Director of the International Scientific and Educational Cooperation Department M.A. Kurka presents a gift to Minister of Education of Ghana Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum
The RUDN University delegation presents a gift to the Municipal Head Executive of the Korle Klottey Municipal District of Ghana Hon. Samuel James Nii Adjei Tawiah
Deputy Head of the Directorate of Strategic Development Programmes M.I. Tislenko presents a gift to Vice-Chancellor of Pentecost University Rev. Prof. Kwabena Agyapong-Kodua
RUDN University delegation and members of the administration of Pentecost University
Minister of Education of Ghana Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, RUDN University delegation and top management of the Jospong Group of Companies
Masamba Kah and Adelaide Araba Siaw Agyepong, the CEO of the Asian African Consortium (Jospong Group of Companies subsidiary), whose specialists are to undergo training under the master’s programme in Agronomy at RUDN University
RUDN University delegation in the laboratory for providing environmental control of the Kumasi Compost and Recycling Plant
RUDN University delegation on an excursion to the Lavender Hill treatment plant of the Zoomlion company (Jospong Group of Companies)
RUDN University delegation at the Kumasi Compost and Recycling Plant
RUDN University delegation on an excursion to the Lavender Hill treatment plant of the Zoomlion company (Jospong Group of Companies)
Deputy Dean for International Activities of the Institute of Ecology A.V. Popkova and Masamba Kah at the meeting with employees of the Korle Klottey Municipal District
RUDN University delegation in the Metro TV studio, one of the largest television stations in Ghana
RUDN University delegation at the meeting with the top management of OmniBSIC bank discussing financial mechanisms to support Ghanaian students in Russia
RUDN University delegation and employees of the Asian African Consortium included in the Jospong Group of Companies, whose specialists are to undergo training under the master’s programme in Agronomy at RUDN University
Compost fertilizer produced at the Kumasi Compost and Recycling Plant
RUDN University delegation in the studio of Metro TV, one of the largest television stations in Ghana
RUDN University delegation at the Kumasi Compost Production and Recycling Plant
RUDN University delegation at the negotiations with the top management of ICT Group, the company for the development of digital solutions
RUDN University delegation at the meeting with OmniBSIC Bank Executive Director Dr. Philip Oti-Mensah
10 profile officers of the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly from the city of Accra (Ghana) are being trained at the school "Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy" of the Institute of Environmental Engineering of RUDN University.
The delegation of the Republic of The Gambia led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Mamadou Tangara visited the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Members of the delegation met with Rector Oleg Yastrebov and the staff of the Agricultural and Technological Institute of RUDN University, went on a tour of biotechnological laboratories and a laboratory for studying soils chemical composition and properties.
January 10–11, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia received a delegation from Ibn Haldun University (Turkey), the parties holding negotiations on expanding scientific and academic cooperation in the humanitarian areas.