BACKGROUND
Cancer registries are essential tools for availing data that guide national cancer control strategies, research priorities, as well as evidence-based policies. Despite notable progress of cancer registration in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), several cancer registries face persistent challenges in generating accurate, complete, and reliable statistics. Shortage of trained personnel, limited technical expertise, and resource constraints have been cited as some of the major barriers. In order to address these gaps, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) designated Nairobi Cancer Registry located at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) as the Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (GICR) Center of Expertise (CoE) for Sub-Saharan Africa, dedicated to strengthening cancer registries in the region through targeted trainings, address technical support requests, and offer mentorship.

METHODOLOGY
Since its inception, the CoE has implemented a blended training model combining virtual and onsite courses. The onsite sessions doubled as targeted technical-support sessions for registries with complex needs and provided hands-on mentorship opportunities. Regular webinars were delivered on data-quality assurance, data utilization and effective navigation of the GICR e-learning resource. Data on participants attendance, satisfaction ratings, and technical-support requests were systematically captured using Kobo Collect and Google Forms throughout the CoE’s  trainings implementation period.

RESULTS
Since inception, over 300 cancer registrars from 30 countries have participated in the virtual CoE courses, while over 100 registrars have attended onsite courses organized by the CoE and held in Nairobi, Eldoret Kenya and Abuja, Nigeria. In the recent survey most participants (82%) reported that the training and mentorship topics were useful for their work, and 68% indicated that the training objectives were fully met. Notably, 64% of participants had less than 19 months of experience working in cancer registry space. Participants particularly valued hands-on sessions on CanReg5, data management, reporting and analysis. Recommendations to enhance effectiveness and sustainability included longer and more frequent trainings, continuous capacity-building, support from CoE and research-related topics to improve skills in utility of data for cancer control.

CONCLUSION
The CoE’s blended capacity building model is essential to achieve accurate, reliable and complete cancer statistics in SSA. Strengthening the CoE's ensures increased in-country expertise, standardized processes, and ultimately high quality data. Continuous learning from this program demonstrate a practical, scalable approach to improve cancer surveillance across low resource settings.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Funding from the Vital Strategies (VS) and training resources from the Africa hub (AFCRN) and Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (GICR - IARC)