Richard Kwasi Bannor becomes Ghana's first full Professor of Agribusiness Management

The University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) has announced the promotion of Professor Richard Kwasi Bannor to the rank of Full Professor of Agribusiness Management in recognition of his years of research, institutional service and practical public relevance.

The distinguished scholar thus becomes the first to attain a full professorship in Agribusiness Management in a Ghanaian institution.

Beyond personal distinction, Bannor's achievement is a significant moment in the development of agribusiness scholarship in Ghana.

It also reflects the growing recognition of agribusiness management as a serious and organised field within Ghanaian higher education, and honours a career defined by sustained research, leadership and mentorship, built around a clear conviction that agribusiness is a field in its own right.

Having received a PhD in Agribusiness Management in India, experiences from postdoctoral research and fellowships in Germany, India and the Netherlands further broadened his comparative perspectives, while his initial training and practice in Ghana kept him firmly grounded in the Ghanaian and African agribusiness realities.

Professor Bannor’s work pays dedicated attention to the commercial, managerial and market-oriented dimensions of agrifood systems, through a coherent research programme covering consumer behaviour and food marketing, agribusiness MSME development, agrifood value chains and market systems, food standards and total quality management, sustainable supply chains and agribusiness strategy.

His publications span 89 peer-reviewed and widely cited articles on the broader areas of how market actors behave, how value and risk are distributed across chains, and the conditions under which agricultural activities become viable enterprises.

His findings have informed international policy documents produced by global institutions, including the FAO, CGIAR, OECD, the German Environmental Agency and the Swedish National Food Agency.

At UENR, Professor Bannor has served as Head of Department, Dean of the School of Agriculture and Technology, and Vice Dean of Students, in addition to chairing and serving on committees responsible for postgraduate studies, research, quality assurance, ethics, grants, and university governance.

He led the development of the PhD in Agribusiness Management programme and earlier chaired the development of the MBA and MPhil in Agribusiness Management, giving the university a complete postgraduate structure in the discipline.

He has also contributed to national curriculum governance as chair or member of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) review panels, evaluating agribusiness and related programmes at multiple universities across the country.

His commitment to field formation extends beyond UENR because, as President of the Ghana Society of Agribusiness Scientists, Patron of the Agribusiness Students Association of Ghana, and Patron of UENR's Young Agripreneurs Forum, he has fostered a sense of belonging through which agribusiness management in Ghana maintains professional identity, intergenerational continuity, and public presence.

Additionally, he has contributed to the development and growth of Ghana's agribusiness workforce through mentorship and youth enterprise development initiatives, project leadership at the Okuafo Pa Agribusiness Project, and institutional coordination for the Kosmos Innovation Centre's agribusiness incubation programmes and other funded initiatives.

These programmes involved large-scale capacity building, support for student enterprises, funding mobilisation for agripreneurs, and collaboration with farmers, extension officers and young entrepreneurs.

Prior to entering academia, he worked with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), and subsequently in agribusiness consulting, and the export trade, where he facilitated the shipment of agricultural commodities to companies in Europe and Asia.

Professor Bannor is a member of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA), with five international patents and maintains active editorial board memberships with a number of academic journals.