The Omanhene of Asante Juaben, Nana Otuo Siriboe II, has been re-elected as the Chairman of the Council of State for the second term of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
At its maiden meeting held at the Accra International Conference Centre Nana Otuo Siriboe was nominated by Mr Sam Okudzeto and was seconded by 10 other members, leading to his unanimous election.
Nana Otuo Siriboe II who was the Chairman of the 7th Council had previously served as a member of the Council of State between 2001 and 2009 during the Presidency of John Agyekum Kufour.
The Chairman of the 8th Council of State is an Electrical Engineering by profession. He graduated from the then University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in 1969 with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.
As the Chairman of the 7th Council, Nana Otuo Siriboe II led the re-engineering of the operations of the Council of State which culminated in the passage of the Council of State Act, 2020 (Act 1037) to which the President gave his assent on 23rd December 2020.
The Act among other things provides for the establishment of a Secretariat and other relevant structures for the attainment of the mandate of the Council.
Nana Otuo Siriboe II has a record of long service to the nation. He was a key member of the Constituent Assembly of 1979 and the Consultative Assembly of 1992 which drafted the 1979 and 1992 Republican Constitutions respectively. He once chaired the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Board, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Council. He also served as a member of several other Boards including the Lands Commission, the Ghana Trade Fair Authority, the Prisons Service Council and Anglogold Ashanti.
In private life, Nana has been a farmer and an industrialist. In 2015, he was adjudged the best large scale oil palm farmer in Ghana. His agro-processing company, Juaben Oil Mills Limited, employing about four hundred (400) people is the largest indigenously owned oil processing facility in the country.
Its operations span from processing of raw palm fruit bunches into crude palm oil and palm kernel oil and further refining same into refined, bleached, deodorised cooking oil, palm stearin and palm fatty acid distillate. The waste products of the operations, viz palm fibre, empty fruit bunches and palm shells are converted into electricity for the factory’s operations.
In 2003, Nana’s alma mater, KNUST, awarded him an honorary Doctorate Degree D.Sc (Honoris Causa) for outstanding leadership in traditional governance and contributions to agriculture and agro-industrial development. Again, in 2007, the Government of Ghana conferred on him the Order of the Star of Ghana, the highest award the nation bestows on its citizens who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields of endeavour and have made profound contributions to the progress of the nation.
Nana Otuo Siriboe II is celebrating his 50th Anniversary as Omanhene of the Asante Juaben Traditional Area this year, having been enstooled in 1971.
