The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) initially started as one of the World Bank's centres of research at the University of Ghana. The Centre has a mandate to provide Master's, PhD & postdoctoral training, as well as targeted short-courses in Cell & Molecular Biology, and to conduct applied research into biology and pathogenesis of tropical diseases, with the aim of increasing research and innovation by enhancing collaboration among biomedical scientists and industry leaders across Africa.Since 2014, WACCBIP has grown into a leading World Bank African Centre of Excellence in Higher Education (ACE), building global partnerships with world-class research institutions and funding organisations. It is also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), and Royal Society of the United Kingdom; the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Rockefeller Foundation and the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA). Expanding our primary source of funding from the World Bank ACE project, we ensured prolonged sustainability of our programmes by securing additional funding from the Wellcome Trust DELTAS grant and additional grants mobilised by our faculty and collaborators.We have invested heavily in recruiting some of the greatest scientific minds and have channelled significant resources into creating one of the best environments for the conduct of their scientific research. Prioritising world-class training, we have established our short-term, medium-term, and long-term training programmes, producing yearly cohorts of brilliant scientists at both master's and doctoral levels. WACCBIP will continue to channel our efforts towards building the infrastructure and the partnerships that will drive the scientific innovations of the future and help tackle the problems associated with infectious and non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.