Chiefs, people of Buipe welcome appointment of Gabiana Gbanwaa as new GM of Shea Processing Factory

The chiefs and people of Buipe in the Central Gonja District in Savannah Region have welcomed the appointment of Mrs. Gabiana Gbanwaa as the new General Manager of the Produce Buying Company (PBC) Shea Processing factory in Buipe.

They are optimistic that, with her decades experience in both the civil service and in the corporate world she would be able to introduce innovative ideas that would help reposition the factory which had been faced with numerous challenges.

They have therefore expressed their commitment to give Mrs. Gbanwaa their maximum support to enable her to discharge her duty effectively to ensure the total transformation of the factory.

Mrs. Gbanwaa was appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo barely two weeks ago following the appointment of the Mr. John Benam, the immediate past General Manager of the company as the Deputy Northern Regional Minister designate.

She brings to fore over four decades experience in civil service and in the corporate world.

Courtesy call

She paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the Buipe Traditional Area (BTA), Buipewura Abdulai Jinapor last Thursday to introduce herself to the chiefs, opinion leaders and residents of the area as well as receive their blessings for her new appointment.

A sub-chief, Jawuasiwura Abukari Atonti in an interview with the Daily Graphic commended the president for her appointment, stating that “all the chiefs are strongly behind her and we will give her our maximum support to ensure that she delivers”.

False report

He, however, refuted reports by a section of the media that some youth of Buipe last Thursday locked up the factory in protest of her appointment following claims that she was not an indigene of the area.

In the said the report, the youth believed to be sympathizers of the NPP are said to have called on the president appoint a native of central Gonja district to occupy the position.

But, Jawuasiwura described the reports as false, stating that she was warmly welcomed to the palace of the Buipewura and all the chiefs had given their blessings to her to assume work.

“It is not true that the factory was locked up and she was detained in the palace, in fact we are happy about her appointment because we believed that the president in his own wisdom has confidence in her that is why he has appointed her.

We as chiefs don’t believe in ethnicity but we want someone who can do the job, if the people have issues with her appointment they should use the appropriate means to channel it” he stated.

Mrs. Gbanwaa who was the 2016 parliamentary candidate of the NPP for the Bawku Central constituency told the Daily Graphic that she had a fruitful discussion with the chiefs of the area during her visit and that they had pledged to rally behind her.

“Though I have heard that some youth were not happy about my appointment, when I paid a courtesy call on the chiefs I was warmly received, in fact I was even presented with gifts as tradition demanded” she said.

The Buipe shea processing company, a subsidiary of the Processing and Buying Company (PBC) Limited was established in 2012 to process, market shea butter and oil plants in the savannah belt of Ghana.