Frank Owusu: Architect of Africa’s aquaculture future

By Kingsley Webora TANKEH Frank Owusu, born in Akyem Nkwarteng in the Eastern Region, is one of Ghana’s young innovators. He translated his ...

By Kingsley Webora TANKEH

Frank Owusu, born in Akyem Nkwarteng in the Eastern Region, is one of Ghana’s young innovators.

He translated his grandmother’s love for fish and the cultural role fish plays in Ghanaian cuisine into a groundbreaking innovation that will help smallholder fish farmers reduce losses, improve production and maximise profits.

Mr. Owusu manufactured a device with three sensors, with each tracking the pH of the water, level of dissolved oxygen, and temperature—the vital signs of aquatic health. When levels become harmful to the health of the fish, the system delivers actionable advice to the farmer’s mobile phone.

For instance an alert on the level of dissolved oxygen in a pond might read: “Hello Rose, your Oxygen level is very low, and you require a water change, or you can plug in an aerator.”

The Aquamet device also provides an integrated platform, where you can keep records digitally, access extension services, and a marketplace for your produce. This device helps farmers increase their yields by 10-15 percent. According to Mr. Owusu, this is a life-changing margin for the small-scale farmers.

His personal experience, especially from his grandmother’s plate, has been the bedrock of his mission to becoming the founder of Aquamet. He is not just an innovator, but a trusted partner to smallholder fish farmers in Ghana and beyond.

Though Mr. Owusu’s academic specialisation in Fisheries and Watershed Management from his Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources Management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) provided the technical foundation, it is his experiences and reaction to the struggles of farmers that defined his path.

He is a scientist with a sense of community. He spoke of meeting a smallholder fish farmer, Mr. Tetteh, with palpable frustration on his face, which guided his vision.\xa0 “This is quite concerning,” he said, stating that it ignited the fire within him. Hearing that smallholder farmers lose 45 percent of their stock inevitably to poor water quality, gave him sleepless nights, determined to build a sustainable solution to curb this endemic crisis.

Setting out on his journey was an uphill battle. Mr. Owusu soon realised that understanding technology alone is not enough. His greatest challenge was not engineering the device, but fostering trust with the farmers to be able to use the device,\xa0 trusting that it will deliver the said results. “We overcame this challenge by shifting the focus from just building the technology to building trust and relationships,” he explained, stating that, “this principle is embedded in Aquamet’s DNA.”

He revealed that constructive feedback has been tremendous to the product development, resulting in the addition of features like simple colour-coded alerts and offline functionality, ensuring the device serves the needs of the user very well. He and his team periodically organize workshops, not to lecture, but to listen to feedback from these smallholder farmers.

Being named a finalist for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, hosted by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, validates this human-centric approach to technology and innovation.

For Mr. Owusu, the prize is a catalyst that amplified his core beliefs. He indicated that, it provided a platform for mentorship and the acumen to scale up his business. “This is an amazing platform to mentor and empower young people,” he said, viewing his success as a collective achievement for Ghana’s youth. He advised aspiring innovators to “dream big, not just for the local market,” reflecting his own ambition to build solutions to impact the entire continent.

However, being aware of the economic realities of smallholders he has prioritized impact over profit, ensuring accessibility of Aquamet with a flexible leasing model. Furthermore, Mr. Owusu, himself a fish lover, sees the data Aquamet gathers not as a corporate asset, but as a national resource, calling for partnerships with the Ministries of Fisheries and Aquaculture to build a “data infrastructure” that can inform national policy, disease tracking, and climate resilience.

In Frank Owusu, we see a new African technology leader: a determined dreamer who values a farmer’s wisdom, building a company and nurturing an ecosystem – where smallholder farmers are empowered, where the youth are inspired, and where a nation’s food security is strengthened, one pond at a time.

Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).