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About AAE

Governing Structure

The African Academy of Engineering is governed through four complementary bodies with clearly defined mandates. The Council is the Academy’s supreme governing body, responsible for strategy, the adoption of governance instruments, and oversight of the other bodies; the Senate is the Academy’s academic and professional core, responsible for the election of Fellows, the conduct of […]

The African Academy of Engineering is governed through four complementary bodies with clearly defined mandates. The Council is the Academy’s supreme governing body, responsible for strategy, the adoption of governance instruments, and oversight of the other bodies; the Senate is the Academy’s academic and professional core, responsible for the election of Fellows, the conduct of engineering activities, and the maintenance of professional standards across its Divisions; the International Development Committee leads the Academy’s external engagement with governments, international organisations, academic networks and industry; and the Digital Intelligence Advisory Commission, established by the Council as an independent advisory body, monitors long-term trends in digital technology, artificial intelligence and data governance, providing the Council with forward-looking advice without taking on executive functions. Each body operates within its own mandate, and together they ensure that strategic direction, academic rigour, international outreach and technological foresight remain in balance — serving a single, coherent vision of engineering as the foundation of Africa’s sustainable development.

Board of Council

The Governing Board is the decision-making and oversight body of AAE. It sets the Academy’s strategic direction, approves the annual plan and budget, authorizes major projects, and makes the final determination on membership matters. The Board is accountable to the General Assembly of Fellows.

Principal responsibilities of the Governing Board:

  • Consider and adopt the Academy’s medium- to long-term strategy and annual work plan.
  • Approve the budget, major expenditure and external cooperation agreements.
  • Confirm the admission of Fellows, Industry Researchers and Technical Engineers.
  • Oversee the Academy’s ethical standards, financial discipline and operational compliance.
  • Exercise decision-making on behalf of the Academy between meetings of the General Assembly.

Board members are elected by the General Assembly and serve fixed terms. The Board includes representatives from different regions of Africa and from engineering education, engineering industry and international partners. The terms, rotation and retirement rules for the Chair and Board members are set out in the Academy’s charter, so as to ensure continuity of governance and regional representation.

Chairman of the Governing Board: Dr. Pamela Sitienei

Dr. Pamela Sitienei has served as Chairman of the Board since the Academy’s founding, and concurrently chairs the Council of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST). She was appointed to the MMUST Council by the Cabinet Secretary for Education in May 2023 and installed as Pro-Chancellor of the University in December of the same year. She led AAE through its transition from a university-hosted initiative to an independently registered continental institution, and established the Academy’s formal relations with the African Union, the United Nations system and embassies of African countries in China.

Co-Chair of the Governing Board: Dr. Ruhua Cao

Dr. Cao Ruhua is a noted expert in agricultural finance and international economic and technical cooperation. He currently serves as Vice-President of the China Association for International Economic and Technical Cooperation of The Ministry of Commerce. For many years Dr. Cao has worked on international development cooperation, agricultural finance and cross-border investment, with close familiarity with China’s foreign assistance, South–South cooperation and multilateral development finance mechanisms. His work focuses on agricultural modernisation, rural finance and food security, and he advocates using financial instruments and appropriate technology to help developing countries transform their agricultural resources into sustainable industrial capacity — a direction closely aligned with the Academy’s Division of Agricultural Engineering and Technology and its Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee operates under the Governing Board and is the Academy’s day-to-day executive body. It turns the strategy and annual plan approved by the Board into concrete projects, budgets and team management. The Executive Committee reports to the Governing Board.

Principal responsibilities of the Executive Committee:

  • Implement Board decisions and deliver the Academy’s annual work plan and budget.
  • Manage the Secretariat and the Academy’s functional units, and coordinate project delivery, financial execution and day-to-day administration.
  • Organize the day-to-day work of fellowship review, prize selection and project appraisal.
  • Handle, between Board meetings, routine matters that do not require Board decision.
  • Sign implementation-level agreements with partners on behalf of the Academy, and report them to the Board for the record.

The Executive Committee is chaired by the President and Secretary-General and includes several Vice-Presidents and heads of units. Its members are appointed by the Governing Board and serve terms aligned with the Board. Major decisions remain with the Board or the General Assembly; the Executive Committee does not substitute for them.

President: Prof. Muhammadou M.O. Kah

Prof. Muhammadou M.O. Kah serves as President of the Academy. He is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of The Gambia to Switzerland, Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international organizations in Switzerland. He chairs the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), serves as Vice-President for Africa of the UN Human Rights Council, is President of the WIPO General Assembly, chairs WIPO’s High-Level Conversations on IP and Frontier Technologies/AI, co-chairs the UN Working Group on Data Governance, is a Founding Board Member of the International Digital and AI Governance Research Institute (I-DAIR), and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Secretary-General: Dr. Jacob Afwata Okoko

Dr.Jacob Afwata Okoko serves as Secretary-General of the Academy. He is responsible for day-to-day administration, organisation of the General Assembly, operations of the Secretariat, and institutional compliance, under the authority of the Executive Committee.

Vice-Presidents

The Senate is supported by a number of Vice-Presidents, assigned by discipline and region:

  • Prof. Innocent Segla Dassekpo
  • Prof. Xu Ting
  • Prof. Dassekpo Mawule Jean-Baptiste
  • Prof. Humphrey Webuye
  • Prof. Christian Staehelin
  • Prof. Fred Harding
  • Prof. Amiya Bhaumik
  • Prof. Rechard Gosling
  • Prof. Srikent Dacora

International Committee

The International Committee works under the Governing Board and is responsible for AAE’s external relations, including liaison and project coordination with other engineering academies, international engineering organisations, academic institutions and multinational companies.

Principal responsibilities of the International Committee:

  • Assess and recommend new international partners, and maintain existing partnerships.
  • Coordinate joint programmes with WIDCO, WIIT, Quanzhou Ocean College and other partners.
  • Organise the nomination, review and public announcement of international prizes.
  • Coordinate AAE’s participation in international conferences, joint research and personnel exchange.
  • Represent the Academy at relevant international engineering bodies and safeguard its international standing and reputation.

The International Committee applies one principle: every external partnership must contribute to engineering capacity building in Africa, on a reciprocal basis. Arrangements that amount to one-directional transfer in the name of cooperation, or that are not consistent with the Academy’s mission, are not accepted.

Chair of the International Committee: Prof. Zoensek Junxi Li

Prof. Li Junxi is one of the four core members of the African Academy of Engineering and serves as Chair of the International Committee, with responsibility for the Academy’s international development strategy, talent recruitment and industrial cooperation.

Prof. Li is an applied strategic researcher with a long-standing focus on innovation systems, industrial development and cross-border cooperation. He currently serves as Dean of the School of Innovation and Sustainable Development at Lincoln University College Malaysia, and concurrently as President of the World Innovation Development Cooperation Organization (WIDCO) and Global Ambassador of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA). In recognition of his contribution to engineering science and technology cooperation between China and Africa and to capacity building in Africa, Prof. Li received a letter of commendation from the Office of the President of Kenya, acknowledging his work in advancing engineering education, talent recruitment and industrial cooperation across the continent.

Digital Intelligence Advisory Commission (DIAC)

The Digital Intelligence Advisory Commission (DIAC) is an advisory body established by the Council of the African Academy of Engineering, sitting alongside the Executive Committee and the International Committee and reporting directly to the Council. The Commission does not conduct day-to-day Academy business, does not review projects, does not substitute for the professional judgement of the Senate or its Divisions, and holds no independent executive authority. Its role is to provide the Council with advice on long-term technology trends in the context of rapid advances in digital technology and artificial intelligence, so that the Academy’s decisions on academic structure, education direction and international cooperation are forward-looking while remaining grounded in the realities of engineering practice in Africa.

Africa has not completed industrialisation; traditional engineering capabilities in power, transport, basic materials and mechanical manufacturing remain a development deficit. At the same time, digital technology and artificial intelligence have already entered the delivery of public services, finance, agriculture and education across the continent. This reality means Africa can neither simply replicate the developed-world path of “industrialise first, digitise later”, nor pursue digital trends in isolation from its industrial base. The DIAC was established so that the Academy can continuously assess how these processes affect the demand for engineering talent and the content of engineering education in Africa, and put evidence-based advisory recommendations before the Council.

Principal Responsibilities:

  • Track the impact of technology trends on engineering in Africa: Monitor how artificial intelligence, automation, data analytics and communications technology are being applied across African infrastructure, agriculture, energy and public services; assess the actual implications for the structure of engineering jobs, the skills required, and the content of engineering education.
  • Advise on the Academy’s academic structure: Based on technology trends, submit recommendations to the Council and the Senate on Divisional structure, disciplinary direction and priorities for the election of Fellows. Whether to adopt these recommendations is decided by the Senate and the Council in accordance with the Charter.
  • Engage in multilateral digital policy dialogue: Drawing on the Academy’s links within the United Nations system, participate in discussions on artificial intelligence governance, data policy and digital development under the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), the UN Working Group on Data Governance, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and related platforms, so that the African engineering profession has a professional voice in these processes.
  • Organise focused professional discussions: Convene one or two closed-door seminars each year, bringing together Fellows, practising engineers, policy researchers and industry representatives to exchange views on the concrete effects of digitalisation on engineering education and employment in Africa. Outcomes are prepared as briefings for the Council and the relevant Divisions.
  • Provide considered judgement to the engineering community: Without exaggeration or hype, offer pragmatic public opinions — addressed to governments, industry and the public — on the short- and medium-term implications of artificial intelligence for engineering jobs in Africa.

Relationship with Other Bodies

  • To the Council: Submits an annual technology-trend advisory briefing; does not substitute for Council decisions.
  • To the Senate and Divisions: Submits recommendations on disciplinary direction; the Senate and Divisions handle them in accordance with the Charter.
  • To the International Development Committee: Matters involving external multilateral dialogue and international cooperation are coordinated and executed by the International Development Committee.
  • To the Digital Governance Institute: The Institute carries out specific data collection, case studies and technical assessments that provide the factual basis for the Commission; the Commission forms advisory opinions to the Council on the basis of that evidence.

Chair of the Digital Intelligence Advisory Commission: Prof. Xu Ting

Prof. Xu Ting is an international expert on digital intelligence. He currently serves as Vice-President of the African Academy of Engineering and as Chair of the Digital Intelligence Advisory Commission (DIAC). For many years he has carried out research and international cooperation in digital technology, artificial intelligence and data governance, with a particular focus on how digital transformation affects industrial systems, public services and engineering education in developing countries. He has extensive experience in the digital economy, the application of intelligent technologies, and cross-cultural digital cooperation, and is the author of numerous academic monographs that together constitute a systematic body of theory and applied practice in digital intelligence. He is familiar with the global policy agenda on digital governance and the workings of multilateral institutions, and is committed to ensuring that digital technology serves as a practical instrument for infrastructure development, agricultural modernisation and engineering capacity-building in Africa. At the African Academy of Engineering, Prof. Xu Ting chairs the DIAC, leading its ongoing monitoring of how artificial intelligence, automation and data technologies are applied across engineering in Africa; advising the Council and the Senate on academic structure, Divisional development and priorities for the election of Fellows; representing the Commission in digital-policy dialogue within the United Nations system, the African Union and related international platforms; and ensuring that the Division of Information Technology, the Institute of Digital Governance and the Advisory Commission form a coherent chain of “research — judgement — policy”.