AAKTP Associate, Belinda Ntow visits UK
Miss Belinda Ntow, Research Assistant/Associate on the African Agri-food Knowledge Transfer Partnership (AAKTP) project at the Department of Food Science and Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) visited the University of Huddersfield (UoH), UK and Ashorne Hill Management College, UK for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership Residential training programmme. The training programme is part of the AAKTP project (AAKTP-13910 / IUK Project No. 10097922) between KNUST, UoH, University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) and the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC), Ghana. This innovative collaboration is funded by Innovate UK.
The first trip was from 18th to 21st November, 2024 at Ashorne hill, UK where participants were taught in Module 1: project management, good communication skills, listening, understanding oneself and others as well as leadership styles and how to be better at it.
She then visited the project team at the University of Huddersfield from the 22nd to 26th November, 2024. They discussed the progress of the project and performed some laboratory analysis on the pectin which had been extracted at KNUST.
As part of the second trip Belinda also visited the academic supervisors at UoH from 19th to 21st February, 2025. During this visit, some analyses were run on the extracted pectin samples from sesame and okra.
From UoH, she then visited and participated in the Module 2 residential training programme at Ashorne Hill Management College from 24th to 27th February, 2025. This training covered basic knowledge on financial principles, the need for market research and aligning business goals with market insights to make informed decisions. Knowledge gained theoretically was applied through business simulations.
Following a successful visit and residential training in the UK, Belinda has returned to KNUST, Ghana and continued her works on the AAKTP project. The AAKTP-13910 Team include Prof. Jacob K. Agbenorhevi (Academic Lead, KNUST), Prof. Gordon Morris (Academic Lead/PI, UoH), Prof. Alan Smith (Academic Supervisor, UoH), Dr. Fidelis Kpodo (Academic Supervisor, UHAS), Dr. Frank Asante (Company Manager, CPC) and Genevieve Pawar (Company Supervisor, CPC). The project aims to develop novel sustainable plant pectins from locally sourced low-market value species for use in chocolate-based products.
