Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES) convened leading experts, regulators, universities, and industry partners in Kigali on January 15, for the External Review and Validation Workshop of the Master of Science in Clean Cooling, a decisive step in building Rwanda’s and Africa’s clean cooling workforce.

The workshop marked a critical milestone in establishing a specialized Higher Learning Institute alongside ACES’ flagship MSc programme, the first of its kind on the continent.

Across Africa, cooling systems remain underdeveloped—not due to a lack of solutions, but because skilled professionals, standards, and locally adapted curricula have not kept pace with rising demand. This gap continues to undermine vaccine delivery, food security, and climate resilience at a time when the continent’s cooling needs are projected to triple by 2050.

The MSc programme is designed to address this shortfall by equipping Rwandan and African specialists with advanced knowledge and skills in refrigeration and sustainable cooling technologies, particularly in health and agricultural supply chains.

During the workshop, experts conducted a comprehensive review of the programme structure, learning outcomes, assessment approaches, and industry alignment, ensuring graduates are prepared to design, operate, regulate, and scale clean-cooling systems across sectors.

The MSc integrates One Health, refrigeration engineering, renewable energy, post-harvest systems, business models, and regulatory frameworks, creating a unified professional pathway for transformative impact in health, food, and climate sectors.

Graduates are expected to emerge as frontrunners in addressing the region’s urgent need for high-level technical expertise in cold-chain management and sustainable cooling. This initiative directly supports Rwanda’s Vision 2050, the National Strategy for Transformation (NST2), and the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, laying the academic and professional foundation for Africa’s clean cooling economy.

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The consultative platform also seeks to bridge the gap between institutional design and industry realities by engaging external subject-matter experts, industry practitioners, and regulatory bodies. Through this process, ACES subjected the proposed institute’s mandate and the MSc curriculum to rigorous examination.

Participants noted there are gaps in cold-chain systems and their impact on agriculture and public health is alarming. Agriculture contributes approximately 24–27 per cent of Rwanda’s GDP and employs about 60 per cent of the workforce, yet post-harvest losses remain high, with up to 40 per cent of total food production lost after harvest.

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Losses in perishable crops such as tomatoes can reach up to 56 per cents, largely due to inadequate cold-chain infrastructure. Globally, between 25 and 30 per cent of vaccines are wasted because of cold-chain failures, with the risk being higher in Africa.

Why the MSc in clean cooling?

Experts explained that the programme is aligned with national priorities and responds to Rwanda’s Vision 2050 and NST2 objectives on climate resilience, food security, public health, and green growth. It addresses high post-harvest losses and cold-chain failures in food and health systems, fills the skills gap in equitable and inclusive sustainable cooling, cold-chain systems, and business models, and promotes the deployment of low-carbon, inclusive, and energy-efficient cooling solutions.

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Professor Toby Peters, Founding Director of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain said that participants "gathered because cooling is no longer a technical addition but has also become critical infrastructure for public health, food security, climate resilience, and economic development.”

"Across Africa, vaccines lose effectiveness, food spoils before it reaches the market and livelihoods are constrained not because solutions do not exist, but because systems, skills, and standards have not yet kept pace with the need,” he explained.

"The Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold- Chain was established to change that,” he said. "Our vision is not merely to introduce better equipment but to build a permanent academic and technical ecosystem capable of leading Africa's transition to clean, energy-efficient cooling.”

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Toby noted that the pan-Africa centre of excellence and an academic institution, has missions and that is knowledge creation, transfer and use to ensure the roll-out of equitable, inclusive and sustainable cold-chain in Africa.

"Within this, specifically we will inspire and empower young people to change their lives and the world through cooling. This is why ACES is establishing a specialised Higher Learning Institute alongside the Master of Science in Clean Cooling to build sustained African capacity, not temporary projects,” he said.

"The world can’t do without refrigeration”

Basile Seburikoko, Technical Director at ACES, explained that the world is rapidly advancing technologically, making refrigeration indispensable.

He noted that refrigeration is crucial across vital sectors such as agriculture, health, data centres, and telecommunications, and that nearly everything now depends on it. However, despite its importance in daily life, the refrigeration field remains fully underexplored.

"We want graduates to help the country take full advantage of refrigeration. This knowledge will also help protect the environment because reducing food losses through clean cooling creates opportunities for more efficient use of equipment for our well-being. We have high expectations for this programme,” he said.

Rwanda is among the few sub-Saharan African countries with advanced environmental quality testing equipment. These facilities are technologically equipped to strengthen national capacity by offering a wide range of testing and calibration services to manufacturers, giving Rwanda a competitive advantage in ensuring that products meet quality standards for both local and international markets.

Athanase Dalson Gace, Head of Academics at ACES, noted that training is shifting from short courses to more rigorous academic programmes. He explained that earlier training focused mainly on cold-room maintenance, refrigerant recovery, and brazing to fix leakages, alongside other foundational courses that promote well-being, gender equality, and social inclusion.

"We believe the new programme will provide solutions to many of our stakeholders’ needs. They suggested key aspects to consider, most of which will be incorporated into the programme. Stakeholders are satisfied and are looking forward to its implementation,” he said.

Gace added that the programme will cover business law, standards and regulations, demonstrations, and practical training through demonstration farms, among other components, to ensure comprehensive learning and professional competence.

"We will have two intakes each year, in January and August, with 20 students per intake. This will result in 40 students per year, and the master’s programme will run for two years. The second intake will begin while the first cohort is still in training. Overall, we are targeting about 1,100 trainees across all training programmes,” he added.

At the end of this process, ACES will submit a fully validated, industry-endorsed programme to Rwanda’s Higher Education Council, laying a strong academic foundation for Africa’s clean cooling economy.