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The world of African innovation is in mourning. Dr Victor Kossikouma Agbégnénou, a veterinarian by training and a visionary inventor, recently passed away in France, leaving behind a scientific and human legacy of immense value. The father of Olympic champion Clarisse Agbégnénou, he embodied a generation of African intellectuals deeply committed to the continent’s development through local innovation.
Trained at the Moscow Veterinary Academy and later at the École nationale vétérinaire d’Alfort, he began his career as a veterinary surgeon before turning his research towards communication technologies. Originally from Togo, he devoted more than 40 years to designing solutions tailored to African realities, often self-funding his work. His commitment was rooted in a firm conviction: Africa must produce its own technologies to ensure its autonomy and sustainable development.
One of its major innovations is the PWCS (Polyvalent Wireless Communication System), a wireless communication system capable of simultaneously providing internet, telephone, television and radio services, presented as an ambitious alternative to fibre optics. This breakthrough gave rise to the RETICE programme (Energy, Information and Communication Technology in Education Network), designed to democratise access to digital technology in areas with poor electricity coverage. Thanks to this initiative, thousands of pupils in Africa notably in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Togo have been able to access suitable digital tools, thereby reducing the educational and technological divide.
His work has been recognised internationally: winner of the Sorbonne’s ITBP Prize in 2018, ranked among the top ten innovations by UNESCO, and recognised as an innovator by the African Union in 2019. But beyond these accolades, it is his tangible impact on the ground that remains most significant. Through his pilot projects, rolled out notably in Dakar, Ouagadougou and Kano, he has helped to connect entire communities and open up new educational opportunities. In 2022, he was still actively involved in saving the secondary school in his home village, demonstrating a constant commitment to his roots.
A visionary, he was a staunch advocate of the need for Africa to take control of its own technological tools. In his speeches, particularly at the University of Lomé, he called on decision-makers and the African youth to invest in local innovation, which he believed was the only path to true economic and intellectual independence.
Today, his legacy lives on through his inventions, his projects and the organisations he helped to build, such as KA Technologies. It also lives on in the values of excellence, discipline and perseverance embodied by his daughter, Clarisse Agbégnénou.