By Edward Acquah, GNA
Accra, Aug. 25, GNA – African countries must build skilled nuclear workforces alongside infrastructure to support the continent’s growing nuclear energy ambitions, experts have said.
They said governments, industry, academia and training institutions must collaborate to create demand-driven education and training programmes that would provide the skills needed across the nuclear sector.
The experts made the call during a strategic workforce foundation panel discussion at the US-Africa Nuclear Energy Summit (USANES) 2026 in Accra on Tuesday.
The discussion, held on the theme: “Building Integrated Education and Workforce Pipelines for Nuclear Programmes/Scaling and Sustaining the Talent Pipeline,” focused on developing sustainable talent pipelines for Africa’s nuclear programmes.
Dr David Otwoma, Founding President of the Kenya Nuclear Society, said Kenya would require a large and diverse workforce if it proceeded with plans to develop a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant.
“Construction alone needs people. And these people, they’re not few. 10,000 workers if you are to do 1,000 megawatts,” he said.
He said Kenya needed to begin developing the required skills well before construction started, while also encouraging more women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Prof Abdullahi Mati, the Director of the Centre for Energy Research and Training at Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, said Nigeria was targeting the training of about 2,000 personnel by 2030 as part of its nuclear development roadmap.
He, however, stressed the need to strengthen Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to produce technicians, artisans and other skilled workers needed by the sector.
“The high-level manpower is important, but I think there’s a critical component of manpower development, which is the technical and vocational education expertise,” he said.
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, former Minister of Education and Energy, said workforce development should be integrated into national development planning, with government, industry and academia jointly determining the skills and numbers required.
“There has to be a collaboration between government, industry, and academia to ensure that your educational sector is producing at every level, and also the numbers you are trained to be well planned,” he said.
Professor Elsie Kauffman, the Dean of the School of Engineering, University of Ghana, called for early exposure of young people to nuclear science and career opportunities, beginning from the basic school level.
“We need to start from the beginning of the pipeline. We need to start from the basic schools,” she said.
Prof Lisa Marshall of North Carolina State University said sustained partnerships among education, government and industry were essential to move students from training into meaningful careers.
“We need to talk with our students early, often, and identify the various pathways,” she said.
The panellists said Africa’s nuclear ambitions would depend not only on technology and infrastructure, but also on a continuous pipeline of qualified personnel to design, construct, operate, regulate and maintain nuclear facilities.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe
Reporter: Edward Acquah