The Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE II) has two centres of excellence in Malawi Aquaculture and Fisheries (AquaFish) with Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and ACEPHEM in the University of Malawi’s – College of Medicine. The Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE II) in Malawi was officially launched in March of 2017 with the support from the World Bank.

ACE II targets 24 centres in the East and Southern Africa (ESA) region that comprises eight participating countries - Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. In Malawi AquaFish ACE is one of the 24 centres of excellence

In AquaFish, five departments have teamed up to deliver higher excellence and fit-for-purpose post graduate students and the departments are: Agribusiness Management, Agricultural and Applied Economics, Agriculture Extension, Food Science and Technology and hosts Aquaculture and Fisheries Department. These departments were selected because of the crucial role they play in the Fish Value Chain, which AquFish intends to look at holistically.

Stakeholder consultation meetings during project proposal development of the AquaFish ACE

Apart from education, partnership is key with the private sector, national, regional and international universities and research institutions. ACE II builds on Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE I) Project in West Africa that targeted 19 centres of excellence and this was the first world bank initiative aimed at raising the quality and standard of higher education in order to transform, science and technology in Africa. Through their leadership and influence, this network of ACEs will raise the bar of quality, relevance and management of higher education for the entire Sub-Sahara Africa region.

this network of ACEs will raise the bar of quality, relevance and management of higher education for the entire Sub-Sahara Africa region. ACE II runs from 2016 – 2020 and will cost each ACE up to six million dollars (US$6 million)