The Government of France has conferred on a Ghanaian citizen Emmanuel Akwasi Owusu, one of the country’s most prestigious awards given to outstanding French citizens in their various fields of endeavours. Mr. Emmanuel Akwasi Owusu works with the Ghana Rubber Estates Limited, GREL, in the Western Region. The company, which is one of the leading rubber producing firms on the continent and a supplier of rubber globally, is owned by the French.

The award recipient, who has worked with GREL for the past twenty-two years, diligently led a team of 125 staff members as well as nearly 9,000 rubber out-growers to implement a rubber out-growers’ project funded by the French Agency For Development to the tune of 46.7million Euros.

As a proud member of the Association of MBA’s, Mr. Owusu is currently in charge of 35,500 hectares of rubber developed for 8,500 farmers. The project is being implemented in over 150 communities in Western, Central and parts of Ashanti and Eastern Regions.

He amongst others, he supervised the rehabilitation programme of 3,500 hectares, thereby increasing production by 30%, developed training manuals on rubber development for staff and out-grower farmers, designed administrative and technical procedures for the management of the Rubber Out-grower Plantations Project, drafted the contractual agreement between out-grower farmers, GREL, ADB and the National Investment Bank.

Mr. Owusu also assisted in the feasibility study of ROPP Phase II, liaised with the software developer to develop customized software for the management of ROPP, assisted with the feasibility study for phase four of ROPP, and also prepared the concept for phase five of the project.

He also served as the National Coordinator for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture during the feasibility study of the third phase.

Mr. Owusu hold Bsc (Hons) in Agriculture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, a Post-graduate certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants- UK, and a Master’s in Business Administration; Finance and Project Management from the University of Leicester (UK).

The current Managing Director of GREL, Mr. Lionel Barres, who described the award recipient as his friend beyond official duties, commended him for his hard work that has seen a project he started twenty-years-ago now a very huge success.

He described Mr. Akwasi Owusu as a man of great values who respects and loves all workers both superior and subordinates. He thus congratulated him and urged him to keep up the good work.

The French Ambassador to Ghana, Fredric Clavier, who decorated the recipient with the prestigious award known as, CHEVALIER DE L'ORDRE DU MERITE AGRICOLE (KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF AGRICULTURAL MERIT), at a brief cocktail event at his residence in Accra, said the award was very important for the French Republic as it represents the best values of the country.

He said the recipient’s dedication to work over the years has been exceptional hence the decision of the French Embassy in Ghana to apply for the prestigious honour on his behalf.

He described Emmanuel Akwasi Owusu, a committed agriculturalist as, "a man of fidelity, a man of loyalty and a man of merit dedicated to his job having served a better part of his life as an agriculturalist’’.

The Ambassador expressed the gratitude of the French Government to him for his hard work that has strengthened the relationship between France and Ghana, as partners to the Rubber Outgrowers Project funded by the French Agency for Development.

On his part, the award winner thanked the French Government for the recognition adding that over the last twenty years, he has benefited immensely from the working culture of the French.

He also thanked the Government of Ghana for its commitment to the project as well as the French Agency for Development and the thousands of rubber outgrowers who worked hard and embraced new farming methods that did not only improve their lives economically but gave the company huge earnings.

Mr. Emmanuel Akwasi Owusu, an Agriculturalist with finance and project management background, has Twenty-two-years of professional experience in development of rubber plantations and management of micro-finance for smallholder farmers.

In December 2008, the Government of France invited him to a High-level meeting in Paris to speak on public/private partnership using the ROPP as a case study. The theme for the meeting was: “Investing in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa”.

In 2004 and 2005, he had training programs at the Centre de cooperation Internationale en Recherché Agronomique pour le Development (CIRAD) Montpelliar, France. The training was on Sphinx Survey and Olympe software for farming systems, sponsored by the French Government.

GREL, a State Owned Enterprise was divested to the French under the Government of Ghana’s divestiture programme.