By Andrew Skerritt
Florida A&M University alumnus and Sierra Leone Ambassador Waleed Shamsid-Deen visited his alma mater Wednesday to discuss strategic partnership opportunities with FAMU’s College of Agriculture & Food Sciences (CAFS).
Shamsid-Deen, a 1994 FAMU graduate, was appointed in December as Sierra Leone’s special envoy and ambassador for foreign direct investment to promote trade and investment in West Africa. His campus visit developed following a meeting with FAMU Trustee Tommy Dortch in Atlanta.
The purpose of the meeting was to promote a sister relationship between the University of Sierra Leone, specifically the Eastern Technology University, and FAMU CAFS, Shamsid-Deen said during his Wednesday visit with CAFS Dean Robert Taylor, Ph.D.
“The intent is to identify delegations to come over to create study abroad programs to promote knowledge transfer and to build the bridge between Africans in the diaspora and African Americans here in the United States,” said Shamsid-Deen, founder of Supreme Foods Worldwide, an Atlanta-based franchise corporation. He is a former member of the FAMU Marching “100” Band, and his daughter has been admitted as a science scholar this fall.
“We’re really excited to promote this relationship, build bridges and create opportunities for the next generation of global leaders, entrepreneurs, and those in academia,” he added. “I look forward to this opportunity.”
Dean Taylor said he is excited about the prospects of building ties with Sierra Leone students and farmers.
“This is a relationship we are really going to cherish because we want to have a footprint in many countries,” Taylor said. “We have to train our brothers in those countries and use the technology and all of the knowledge that we have and share it with them. It is a two-way street, because they have a lot of talent there too.”
Taylor said the stakes are high when it comes to global food security.“By 2050, we’re going to have 10 billion people in the world and Africa is going to be really very important when it comes to food production,” Taylor said. “We want to be a part of laying the foundation for that.”
