General News of Monday, 25 November 2019

Source: starrfm.com.gh

All Nations University to spearhead First African Constellation Satellite

Ten Universities and Institutions in Africa supported by their Governments are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) with the All Nations University College -a private tertiary institution in Ghana – to build First African Constellation Satellites.

The MOU will be signed during the 8th Space Science Technology Workshop next year.

The institutions are African Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Lome, Togo, International University of Management(IUM) in Windhoek, Namibia, University of Nobert Zongo, in Koudougou, Burkina Faso and Institute National Polytechnique Houphouet-Biogny (Think Tank) in Yamoussoukro, Cote D’Ivoire.

The rest are the University of Sierra Leone, The Kofi Annan University in Guinea, the University of Mondello in Cape Verde, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, the International University of East Africa in Uganda, and the National University of Lesotho.

This was announced by President of All Nations University College, Dr.Samuel Donkor during the jointly held 23rd and 24th graduation ceremonies Saturday in Koforidua.

Dr.Donkor explained that the University will train Engineers/Scientists and Students from these African Countries at the University’s Space System Technology Laboratory(ANU-SSTL) in Koforidua.

He stated that the University is “creating this historic Collaboration platform to build the capacity of each African Country in the network”.

The All Nations University College made Ghana the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to launch an educational satellite, Ghanasat-1, into earth orbit on Friday 7 July 2017.The Satellite was designed by three young space engineers from the University

The Space Science Technology Laboratory of All Nations University College (ANU-SSTL), formerly known as Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (ISSL), was established in February 2012 with mission of promoting and building human capacity in the area of Space Science and Satellite Technology through innovative research and development of educative projects to impact the society and Africa as a whole.

According to the President ,In January 2019,the University signed a Collaborative agreement with Ghana Meteorological Agency to explore avenue to enhance weather and climate forecasting in Ghana using satellite Technology towards the development of GhanaSat-2, a mission Satellite to be built by the University to achieve more practical missions to solve environmental issues in Ghana and her neighboring countries.

Investment

The President of the University revealed the institution has invested $2million in Faculty Development, making it the first private University in Ghana to make such investment. According to him “we believe that creating a World Class Institution depends largely on a great faculty, great student body, great infrastructure and great administration”.

Dr.Joseph Serwadda, the Guest Speaker from Uganda said the World has become complicated due to corruption, poor governance and leadership in many countries but charged the graduands to strive in their communities to change the narrative to make the future brighter for the next generation.