Mr Samuel E. Timpo has been appointed as the acting Head of the AUDA-NEPAD’s biosafety programme, the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE), as well as the Officer-in-Charge of the AUDA-NEPAD Regional Office in Dakar. He takes over from Dr Jeremy Tinga Ouedraogo, who spent over seven years in this position.

In his statement during the handover meeting, Dr Ouedraogo praised the incoming Head of ABNE and acknowledged the tremendous support Mr Timpo had provided to the ABNE programme since joining the organisation almost a decade and a half. “I am proud that the AUDA-NEPAD CEO and the Senior Management Team deemed it fit to appoint Mr Timpo to this position. I am also proud of how we worked as a team to surmount challenges and to make sure we achieved the AUDA-NEPAD goals in biosafety matters for Africa”, he said. He also called on all ABNE staff to provide all the support they can to Mr Timpo so that the biosafety programme would continue to thrive and achieve tangible results to the benefit of AU Member States.

Mr Samuel Timpo also acknowledged the great contribution of Dr Jeremy Ouedraogo to the ABNE programme during his tenure. “Thank you, Dr Ouedraogo, for your leadership, building on previous efforts and achievements and for your openness and readiness to work with all. My gratitude also goes to colleagues for the teamwork and support over the years. We need to continue in that same vein as a team and with everyone contributing their quota”, he said.

Prior to this appointment,  Mr Timpo was the Principal Programme Officer within ABNE and based at the Centre of Excellence for Rural Resources and Food Systems in Dakar, Senegal. He was responsible for the socio-economic aspects of the programme and biosafety communication. He has been involved in biosafety capacity-building efforts in Africa for over a decade and is the focal person in AUDA-NEPAD on matters pertaining to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Protocols, and coordination support to African countries during international negotiations.

Mr Timpo previously worked as a socio-economist with the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, during which period he coordinated biosafety capacity development activities in Ghana. He holds a Master of Philosophy degree in agricultural economics from the University of Ghana, Legon. Mr. Samuel Timpo also previously taught courses in entrepreneurship; micro-enterprise development and management; agricultural economics; and agricultural finance and marketing at the University of Ghana, the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, and the School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences.