On Wednesday 21st August 2019, the IEEE Africa Council held an open Forum for IEEE members during the 2019 IEEE PowerAfrica Conference in Abuja. Prof Gloria Chukwudebe, Chair Africa Council declared the Forum open at about 2:36pm. She briefly outlined the objectives of the Council and the journey so far. Subsequently, Mr. Sampath Veeraraghavan (the Chair, 2019 IEEE SIGHT Steering Committee) made an eye-opening presentation on the how IEEE SIGHT works. He volunteered that he could give a webinar on how to write proposals for SIGHT projects.

After that, Herbert Lwanga, a vibrant IEEE Volunteer from Uganda, made the second presentation on the use and importance of IEEE Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE).  The follow up questions revealed the interesting features of CLE which members present have not been using.  On the other hand, Dr Kennedy Okafor – the IEEE Nigeria Section Treasurer presented on IEEE Financial Reporting Systems. There were many questions and one of the volunteers, a treasurer from one of the African countries who joined late was advised to meet Dr Kennedy for further explanations on how to use NetSuite effectively.

Another active IEEE volunteer from Nigeria, Reginald Ogu gave a presentation on the use of Collabratec. He explained that myIEEE, the personalised webpage for members has been shut down and replaced with IEEE Collabratec, which is more robust and has social networking features. He concluded his presentation by showing the current look and feel of the IEEE Africa Council website.

John Funso-Adebayo, the Vice-Chair of IEEE Sight Committee and current Vice-Chair, Nigeria Section gave further explanations on the requirements of SIGHT projects and encouraged the volunteers present at the Forum to spread the information when they get back to various countries.

During the general deliberations, Vincent Olema, the Uganda Section Chair solicited the support of the IEEE Africa Council on making Uganda Section vibrant. To clarify, Engr. John Funso-Adebayo explained to Cyiza Augustin, a volunteer from Rwanda and another volunteer from a Nigerian University how to establish an IEEE Student branch on their campuses.

Engr. Raphael Onoshakpor, the IEEE Nigeria Section Chair promised to provide support when they are ready to start. Other volunteers at the Forum were Engr Isaac Adekanye, the Nigeria Section PES Chair; Engr. Azuka Ofogu, the Nigeria Section ComSoc Chair; Rislan Kanya, the YP an active YP volunteer; Wale Alonge, the Assistant Seccretary, Nigeria Section; Ifeyinwa Achumba, Secretary Nigeria Section, and Kingsford Atanga– PES Chair, Ghana. Engr. Raphael Onoshakpor gave the closing remarks at 5:22pm.

To access all the presentations, please visit the link: shorturl.at/hotEL