WASCAL ENGAGES FIRST GREEN HYDROGEN SCHOLARSHIP APPLICANTS

One hundred and thirty prospective West African beneficiaries of WASCAL’s scholarship students from across West Africa participated in the inaugural edition of the WASCAL Open Day for students who are applying to the newly introduced international master’s programme in energy and green hydrogen technology.

The one-day event which took place via zoom, was under the auspices of the Director of Capacity Building.

Speaking at the event, Director of WASCAL Capacity Building Programme, Professor Daouda Kone explained the myriad of opportunities abound to students who are eventually selected to benefit from scholarship. He also, emphasized that the programme was still opened to fee paying students who were not selected for the scholarship.

Directors from the hosting universities also took their turns to address the students, Professors Fatou Gueye from the University of Cheik Anta Diop, Rabbani from University of Abdou Moumouni, Komi Agboka from University of Lomé and Dr Kouassi Edourd on behalf of Prof Soulemanne Konate from University of Felix Houphouët-Boigny were the directors who took their turns to address the students elaborating on individual programmes, and  answering questions of students expectations ahead of the programme.

Also addressing the students on overseas opportunities, Dr. Solomon Agbo from WASCAL’s German partners, Forschungszentrum Jülich, stressed that the groundbreaking programme was unprecedented in West Africa and that students who got opportunity to be part of the progarmme should be part. He emphasized that students would have the opportunity to work on their theses for six months in Germany, with intense engagement with professors, and other academic players while in Germany.

 This is the first time WASCAL has engaged students since the inception of its scholarship schemes in 2012

“There was the need to be more proactive by engaging prospective students, to avoid ambiguities, and to answer all questions that they may not know where to direct them to. As an international orgnaization, committed to combatting Climate Change, improving livelihoods and promoting renewable energy in West Africa, it is imperative to continuously engage our stakeholders, and the students are also our stakeholders who must know what we stand for, and how to enegage them on” Professor Daouda Kone spoke after the event.

The 24-month programme, to be run in partnership with Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH and RWTH Aachen University, Germany, with funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF) seeks to prepare and train a new generation of interdisciplinary professionals capable of proposing adapted solutions to the ongoing energy crisis in West Africa.

The programme will also provide training on state-of-the-art tools used in renewable energy, green hydrogen technology and policy with the view of training adequate human resources to boost the sector of energy technology and guide policy formulation across West Africa with special focus on green hydrogen technology.