KNUST Centre Seeks Partners Amid Africa’s Clean-Air Funding Crisis

The West Africa Centre for Clean Air (WACCA), hosted by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), is seeking stronger regional partnerships and long-term support as funding for clean-air action continues to decline globally. The Centre's Coordinator and Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Yen Adams Sokama-Neuyam, and Prof. Francis Kemausuor, were represented at the 2026 Africa Clean Air Forum in Pretoria, South Africa, where they connected with organisations, researchers, and potential funders working across the continent.

Regional Ambition

WACCA's ambition is regional, with Dr. Sokama-Neuyam saying it will "spearhead air quality research policy and integration, regional integration and regional regulation and implementation." The Centre is expected to help strengthen the link between air-quality science and policymaking, while supporting capacity building and regional cooperation. This role is particularly important as African countries confront growing urbanisation, transport emissions, household pollution, waste burning, and other sources of polluted air.

Dr. Sokama-Neuyam, a Senior Lecturer in Petroleum Engineering at KNUST and Scientific Director of the university's Net-Zero Carbon Emission Lab, believes Ghana already has a strong foundation of researchers and institutions working on air quality. He points to researchers at KNUST and other Ghanaian universities, as well as the Environmental Protection Authority and the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, as evidence that Ghana has an established base from which to build.

Funding Crisis

However, the Centre's emergence comes against a difficult financial backdrop. The Clean Air Fund's State of Global Air Quality Funding 2025 found that international development funding for outdoor air-quality action fell 20% from US$4.7 billion in 2022 to US$3.7 billion in 2023. Between 2019 and 2023, air-quality projects accounted for just 1% of international development funding. The situation in sub-Saharan Africa was even more stark, with outdoor air-quality funding falling by 91% in 2023, from US$129 million to US$12 million.

Dr. Sokama-Neuyam says securing funding for research and implementation is likely to become increasingly difficult. "Funding in every sector has never been easy. And I think it's only going to get harder over a period of time, because the funding landscape has become a bit difficult, because many of the institutions that used to invest in research have started cutting back on their investment." He adds that Ghana's research environment has seen some improvement in access to air-quality funding, but this is still a challenge for the Centre.

Building a Sustainable Future

Beyond establishing the Centre, the KNUST team is already thinking about what happens after the current funding cycle ends. Dr. Sokama-Neuyam says the team has been engaging institutions and funding agencies to build a sustainable future for WACCA. "We've also been working with several institutions, funding agencies to be able to give sustainability to the centre at the end of the funding cycle." This focus on sustainability is particularly relevant given the funding trends highlighted at the Pretoria forum.

The Africa Clean Air Forum itself was designed to examine not only scientific and policy responses to air pollution, but also funding pathways and opportunities for private-sector investment. For WACCA, the forum offered both a learning opportunity and a chance to begin building the relationships needed to survive beyond its initial project funding. Dr. Sokama-Neuyam described the Centre's participation as its first at the forum, saying, "This is the first time we have participated in this forum. The Africa Air Quality Forum is a very big one. We've learned a lot for the past three days."

Source: JOY