Dr Jacob Paarechuga Anankware, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) has picked nomination forms to contest the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary primaries in the Navrongo Central Constituency.
The other new face is Pius Ayemva Avio, a legal practitioner and Manager at GRIDConsult.
Dr Anankware is currently the Head of the Department of Horticulture and Crop Production at UNER with over 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals and a book on the hermetic storage of grain against major insects and pests.
Dr Anankware attended the Navrongo Secondary School (NAVASCO) from 2001 to 2004 and proceeded to the University for Development Studies where he pursued a Bachelor of Science in Applied Biology from 2005 to 2009 and served as a teaching assistant in the same University from 2009 to 2010.
In 2009, he won a grant of US$7,000.00 from a scientific breakthrough at UDS for developing a natural control for major insect pests.
He continued to the University of Ghana and pursued a Master of Philosophy in Entomology at the prestigious African regional Postgraduate Programme in Insect Science (ARPPIS) from 2010 to 2012.
Prior to his graduation, he worked as a consultant at Vestergaard Frandsen (Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research), Legon, from 2012 to 2013. At Vestergaard, he established the largest insectary in Ghana from scratch; developed rearing protocols for major storage pests and conducted bioassays for the popular deltamethrin-impregnated ZeroFly grain storage bag.
In 2013, Dr Anankware resigned to pursue his PhD in Entomology at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Nairobi where he was in charge of the Deputy Country Director of Fish for Africa (an NGO specialised in rearing insects for protein in feed).
He helped raise about €3 million from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Swiss National Science Foundation but resigned in August 2014 and joined Aspire Food Group (An NGO rearing edible insects for human consumption) as the Ghana Country Director.
Dr Anankware helped build Aspire Food Group from scratch with a US$ 1 million grant from the Bill Clinton Global Initiative and the Hult Prize but resigned in September 2016 to concentrate and finish his PhD in November 2016 and became the first and only entomologist in Africa.
Dr Anankware was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Michigan, USA, a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow at Purdue University, USA and a 2018 Humboldt Scholar at Humboldt University in Germany.
A certificate from Oxford University and a fourth post-Doctoral fellowship at the New York University School of Medicine; focussing on Research Ethics and Integrity, and currently a law student.
Dr Anankware is the Founder and CEO of AnePaare Farms, a global player in entomophagy and a board chairman of Neat Eco-Feeds Ltd.
He is currently working on a US$1.85 million DANIDA-funded project on the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and infectious diseases among women and children and how edible insects can contribute to mitigating the injuriousness caused by iron deficiency and anaemia.
He has successfully trained and empowered over 2,000 farmers in the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Ashanti and Eastern regions of Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Kenya to sustainably rear larvae of the African palm weevil (Rhynchophorus phoenicis), also called “akokono” in Akan, to improve their nutrition and income.
He also rears larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illusions) as a cheap source of protein to replace fish meal and soybean meal in fish and poultry feed.
His dream is to see a food-secure, Africa.
Dr Anankware has served and contributed immensely to the NDC and had been a TEIN Patron at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) since 2018.
He had also served as the Upper East Regional NDC Election monitoring member for the 2020 election.
He was a campaign team member for the Navrongo Central Constituency in the 2020 election among other responsibilities in the party.
In an interview with the GNA, he said the current harsh economic conditions of the country called for the need to get someone who can relate well with the people to win more votes for the NDC to defeat NPP in 2024.
He said the people of Navrongo only need respect and someone who is down to earth and not someone who will lord his position on them.
“This is the second time I’m contesting, and I know the delegates will give me their blessings during the primary to represent them since the current MP has lost touch with the constituents and his re-election spells doom for the party in 2024”, he said.
