Charity Sackitey: Celebrating A Cocoa Industry Trailblazer And True Woman of Excellence

Last month, Charity Sackitey was named the 2021 Woman of Excellence Award recipient during this year’s edition of the Ghana Cocoa Dinner organised by Cocoa Post under the auspices of Ghana Cocoa Board.

The award was presented to her by the Chief of Staff of the Government of Ghana, Hon. Frema Osei Opare recognised Charity Sackitey’s outstanding contribution to the African cocoa sector and her many trailblazing feats as a woman in the male-dominated global industry.

For close to three decades, Charity Anima Sackitey has established herself as a professional with diversified work experience in the food and beverage industry.

By her stellar leadership over the years, Charity has proven to be a woman who has significantly contributed to the development of the cocoa sector in Africa, especially in Ghana.

She has performed creditably throughout the years and has had an impressive track record of building and leading strong teams to consistently attain sustainable business goals.

In recognition of her role and contribution to the cocoa sector, in March 2021, Charity was named a recipient of the prestigious Ghana Women of Excellence Award organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in commemoration of the UN International Women’s Day.

In November 2020 the cool-but-determined mother of three was appointed Managing Director of Barry Callebaut Cameroon and SIC Cacao Cameroon, where she currently serves on the board of both entities.

In that capacity, Charity leads the Cameroon Teams of the Barry Callebaut Group in Douala and Yaoundé.

 

Behind that appointment is the success story of four years of dedication to exemplary service and leadership as the Managing Director of Barry Callebaut Ghana.

In telling the story of her career journey, Charity makes a special mention of Coca Cola where she started her career. She left Coca Cola as Quality Manager to join Barry Callebaut in a similar role.

And by dint of hard work, Charity progressively rose through the ranks to serve as Plant Manager, and subsequently was appointed as Managing Director of Barry Callebaut Ghana Limited.

That was historic as she became the first African, and the first woman, to be appointed to that office by the Multinational cocoa processing giant.

Barry Callebaut is the leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, with an average annual production of 2.1 million tons of cocoa & chocolate. It is currently based in Zürich, Switzerland, and operates in over 143 countries worldwide.

Whilst in Ghana, as MD, Charity collaborated very closely with industry stakeholders and regulatory Authorities to shape policy on the Cocoa Sector and other sectors.

In the process, Charity found a flair in leading people and teams to deliver business goals and objectives.  To that end, over thirty professionals who were members in teams led by her testify to the positive experience, growth and self-rediscoveries various fields in and outside of the sector.

Although Charity initially had a technical background, through hard work, commitment, and consistently high performance, she weaved her way into high-level leadership.

She has had experience and expertise in Plant Operations; Quality Management, Occupational Health and Safety Management, and Strategic Leadership.

To Charity’s thinking, the best test of leadership at any level (in the corporate or public sector) is how it translates into social development. Primarily, that explains her love for social development.

Charity is a strong advocate on women issues, and volunteer to mentor young people, who take inspiration from her. In the last decade, over 50 young men and women have benefited from her personal mentoring engagements.

In the heat of COVID-19 related lock-down in 2020, by Charity’s leadership, Barry Callebaut reached out with support to a number of vulnerable groups in the catchment communities and cocoa-growing areas.

Later, she strongly added her voice to that of many industry leaders to address the issue of stigmatization against COVID-19 recovered patients.  Prior to this, Charity has spearheaded several corporate-social responsibility projects on behalf of her company, especially in the areas of health, education and environment.

Again, out of her sense of giving back to society, Charity serves on the boards of some non-profit organizations whose values and objectives align with hers.

For instance, she serves as an active supporter and Board Member of More Hope for the Disabled, a local association for People with Disabilities (PwDs) located at Teshie, Accra.

And she is a key member of the Board of Advisors for Great-Age Global, an organization that seeks ‘to address the needs of the elderly in society by harnessing the potential of youth power.

Mrs. Charity Anima Sackitey is a product of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) where she earned a BSc. Biochemistry.

She holds an MBA in Project Management from GIMPA. She is married with three grown children.