The Chief Executive Officer of the National Biosafety Authority, Mr. Kwame Dei Asamoah-Okyere on Friday October 4, 2024 played host to two (2) partner organizations – Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) and the National Centre for the Coordination of Early Warning ad Response Mechanism (NCCRM) to discuss issues of mutual interest. The discussion with OFAB’s Africa Project Manager based in Kenya, Mr. Vitumbiko Chinoko centred on the development of a blueprint for training and capacity building for the Authority with the hope of becoming a trainer for other regulatory bodies in Africa. Mr. Asamoah-Okyere acknowledged the capacity building and other support of OFAB to the NBA and added that the support has helped the NBA in its regulatory mandate. He indicated his commitment to making the NBA a centre of excellence in the biosafety regulatory space in Africa and therefore called for strengthened collaboration with OFAB. The meeting also discussed the maiden biannual biosafety conference and seminar on biosafety regulatory practices among others in 2025.
Mr. Chinoko, on his part explained that his visit was to welcome the new CEO into office and have first-hand knowledge of the capacity needs of the NBA. He indicated that OFAB was committed to enhancing targeted capacity strengthening which will ultimately lead to building improved communication among stakeholders and decision makers. He assured of OFAB’s commitment to facilitating quality engagement among her 10 partner countries to forge strategic alliances while encouraging knowledge sharing in the agricultural biotechnology space.
The NCCRM represented by the National Coordinator, Col. Emmanuel Sarpong and Mr. Ernest Konadu Asiedu also explored how the NBA and NCCRM could work together for the timely identification of risks and improved response mechanisms bearing in mind decisions on containment applications, Confined Field Trials (CFT) and Environmental Release.
