Food safety and insecurity, malnutrition and poverty are severe interdependent development challenges in Africa. Almost half of Africa’s population is living below the poverty line (48.5%) and suffers from chronic hunger (75%) and malnutrition (226.7 million – 20.5%) and these figures are highest in central and West African regions. Food production increases resulting from the agricultural initiatives are compromised by food-borne diseases; to this effect, much effort is already deployed to address the threat from mycotoxins, major biotic constraints to food security causing losses to crop yield, human productivity (40%) and in export, and lowered performance of animal husbandry in addition to the direct human health impacts of increased incidences of cancers, growth stunting in children, reduced life expectancy and death. Other threats, such as salmonellosis, enterohaemorrhagic, hepatitis A, acute and chronic aflatoxicosis, cholera, heavy metal poisoning, and the threat of antibiotic resistance arising from improper use of veterinary drugs and chronic pesticide and industrial chemical residue exposure need urgent attention. 

These pervasive problems, which affect children at a disproportionately high rate require transformative science, engineering and policy solutions bought about by a knowledgeable workforce. The creation of the Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE) for Mycotoxin and food safety will create learning opportunities and research results to address Africa’s shortage of expertise and applicable solutions to endure a safe, controlled and sufficient food supply that will support economic growth and public health. 

The education objective of ACEMFS is to create an interdisciplinary experiential model that will prepare a cadre of future leaders focused on the rapidly emerging need for innovations at the nexus of food security, food safety, agricultural productivity and economics from local to global scales. The ACEMFS will leverage the research infrastructure available in the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CGEB) and its strategic plan to train a skilled and innovative workforce that would transform Africa’s natural resources into goods and services, driven by entrepreneurship and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), to positively affect the economy and thus the quality of life of her people.