The kidnap of two Koreans aboard a Ghanaian flagged fishing vessel and the operation of the new Shea butter processing plant in Tema are the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Graphic reports that two Koreans aboard a Ghanaian flagged tuna fishing vessel, the AP 703, were kidnapped while navigating 110 nautical miles south of Keta within Ghana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The incident, which occurred about 7:35 a.m. on August 28, 2020, saw the pirates abandoning the vessel and its remaining crew of Ghanaians in Togolese waters and left with their captives, made up of the captain of the vessel and the chief engineer.
A source told the Daily Graphic that the pirates, numbering about eight, accosted the vessel using a speed boat, hijacked and took control of it.
They then moved the vessel about 106 nautical miles across the border into the EEZ of Togo, where they took away the two Koreans, leaving the remaining crew of Ghanaians.
The newspaper says that a new shea butter processing plant, equipped with modern machinery, has started operation in Tema.
The report said that the factory was established by Bunge Loders Croklaan (BLC), the oils and fats business speciality of Bunge Limited, a leading international agribusiness, and food company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The plant is the biggest of its kind in Africa, according to BLC.
It is a fully automated solvent fractionation plant that processes raw shea butter made from locally collected and crushed shea nuts into two major products — shea olein and shea stearin.
The shea stearin is processed in the company’s facilities in The Netherlands, Malaysia, USA, and Canada to produce ingredients used in many food and non-food applications such as the equivalent of cocoa butter used in the chocolate confectionery.
The Graphic also reports that Proceedings at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sitting in Parliament have exposed poor accounting and weak control systems in some state institutions, leading to loss of state funds.
When some institutions under the ministries of Transport and Aviation appeared before PAC yesterday to respond to queries in the Auditor-General’s report of 2017, it was established that poor financial management and improper record-keeping remained a hurdle to be cleared to ensure the judicious use of public resources.
The institutions that appeared before the PAC were the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), the Government Technical Training Centre (GTTC), the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), and the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL).
While some of the institutions failed to ensure best corporate practices to prevent waste, weak accounting systems in others paved the way for some officials to misappropriate funds.
For instance, when the GTTC took its turn in the hot seat, it came to light that two of its officials had misappropriated GH¢65,368 between 2011 and 2016.
The Times reports that MTN says it will keep investing to achieve its digital operator status, where it will put the power in the hands of customers to perform their own activities on the MTN network remotely.
“We also sustaining investments in infrastructure and strategising to become a “full digital operator” by 2023, Selorm Adadevoh, MTN Ghana Chief Executive Officer said.
The CEO, who was speaking at Editors’ and Stakeholders’ virtual forum in Accra, said the company was leveraging the strength of its “fintech” and some six pillars to “deliver a bold new digital world to customers.”
The six pillars are; Best Customer Experience, Returns and Efficiency Focus, Ignite Commercial Performance, Growth through Data and Digital, Hearts and Minds and Technology Excellence – (BRIGHT).
He said COVID-19 had highlighted the importance of digital operation and said MTN was transforming its operations, and expanding the mobile money (MoMo) ecosystem through partnerships to become the digital player.
The newspaper says that a $4 million maize processing factory at Nsuta in the Sekyere Central District of the Ashanti Region is scheduled to commence operation by November this year.
The factory falls under the Common User-processing Facility, pillar of government’s One District-One Factory (1D1F) policy.
Under this pillar, farmer groups are given financial support by the government to set up and manage a factory in their area.
Currently, out of the 232 factories, which are at various stages of completion spread across the country, five were common user-processing facilities.
Inspecting work on the factory yesterday, Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, said the factory would be inaugurated by October 30 and handed over to the maize farmers group.
GIK/APA