ACCRA-(MaraviPost)-Malawi Minister of Higher Education, Dr Jessie Kabwila, has made a call for the institutionalisation of Africa Centres of Excellence (ACEs) to ensure their long-term sustainability and integration into university structures and national development frameworks.
Speaking at the Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence 10th Anniversary in Accra, Ghana, themed ” Celebrating a Decade of Impact and Innovation of Africa Centers of Excellence Program”.
Dr. Kabwila emphasised the critical importance of embedding ACE activities within the strategic frameworks, governance, and operations of universities.
“The ACE initiative has been a game changer for our universities, It has strengthened institutional capacity, expanded high-quality postgraduate training, and accelerated applied research.
“However, for these gains to last, ACEs must be fully absorbed into university systems and national planning frameworks.” said Kabwila.
However, she lamented the short project timeframe which pose significant risks to long-term sustainability.
“The Centres were forced to prioritise immediate results over strategic planning, post-project evaluation, and sustainability. We need to correct this by allowing realistic timelines in future project designs,” she said.
Kabwila also highlighted key challenges, including delays in funding disbursement, limited infrastructure, and coordination challenges among coordination and implementing partners like IUCEA and Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM).
She noted that critical components such as enterprise incubation suffered due to late provision of guidelines.
“The lack of time to engage meaningfully with communities, research partners, and incubatees has affected the sustainability of enterprise development and innovation systems,” she said.
She lauded the ACEs in Malawi for tackling pressing national priorities—including the commercialisation of fisheries, food safety, climate-smart agriculture, and data-informed policymaking—while expressing concern over the lack of support for innovations developed by postgraduate students.
She said that the memorandum of Understandings, (MoUs) signed with local, regional, and international partners have been a strong step forward, but without dedicated financing mechanisms, universities may struggle to implement agreed work plans.
Kabwila proposed a new ACE program aimed at integrating advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, climate and hydrological modelling, and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms to support agri-systems and real-time monitoring, with Malawi’s focus shifting towards large-scale agricultural commercialisation.
“It is time to cement and scale the progress we’ve made. We need to ensure our research and development ecosystems are rooted in strong institutional frameworks, well-resourced, and linked to community and national development.” she said.
She reaffirmed Malawi’s commitment to the MW2063 development agenda and called on regional partners and the international community to support the continued evolution of ACEs as a vital engine for Africa’s higher education transformation.
Under the ACE programme launched in 2014 across Africa with support from World Bank which Malawi started in 2016 as ACE II project, six (6) ACEs have been established – three at LUANAR, namely Aquaculture and Fisheries Science Center of Excellence (AQUAFISH), African Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Policy Analysis (APA), and Centre of Excellence in Transformative Agriculture Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (TACE); one at MZUNI, namely African Centre of Excellence in Underutilized and Neglected Biodiversity (ACENUB); and one at UNIMA, namely, Centre for Resilient Agri-food Systems (CRAFS).
