Former First lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings appeared before Commission investigating past Judgment Debt payments in the country \u00a0on Monday to explain how her company was awarded a judgment debt \u00a0of over 4 million dollars as judgment debt.<\/p>\n
Caridem<\/span> Development Ghana which is owned by Nana Konadu\u2019s<\/span> Non- Governmental Organization, the 31st December Women\u2019s Movement, signed a joint venture with a Chinese International Company for Agriculture and fisheries for Cocoa processing.<\/p>\n Calf cocoa which<\/span> is joint venture<\/span> between Caridem and the Chinese company sued the state after the Finance Ministry failed to release an undisbursed<\/span> amount of 1.8 million dollars under a subsidiary Loan agreement to it for its cocoa processing business.<\/p>\n Explaining the facts of the case to the Chairman of the commission, Justice Yaw Appau, Nana Konadu noted \u201cCalf Cocoa International was thought out due to the fact that the price of Cocoa kept dropping and our organization through its business department (Caridem) decided to go into the manufacturing of cocoa.<\/span>We went to a number of countries and the Chinese government bought our idea.<\/span>In fact, we and two other companies were given concessionary loans to start up the company.\u00a0\u00a0 So we started the company in the late1990\u2019s. The shareholding was forty-nine percent for<\/span> my organization and fifty-one percent for the Chinese company\u201d.<\/p>\n According to her the Government of China, through the export Import Bank (EXIM Bank) in October\u00a01998, agreed to give the Government of Ghana an interest-subsisided<\/span> concessionary loan\u00a0 for the purpose of financing industrial projects in the country through joint ventures between Ghanaian and Chinese companies in identified<\/span> areas of interest.<\/p>\n Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings reiterated what Private Legal Practioner, Tony Lithur (counsel for Calf Cocoa) had earlier told the Commission that \u201cthe company required about $8.7million to set up a cocoa processing factory and as of 2003 the factory had been established, and needed the $1.8million due it to buy the cocoa beans for its operations.But the Ministry of Finance was reluctant to release the money and instead suggested at the time to Calf Cocoa International\u00a0to enter into a sales contract with the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board for the supply of the Cocoa beans\u00a0which was clearly not part of the agreement.This subsequently led to a suit against the state for breach of contract.Politics unfortunately, came to play and we could not even begin production in 2003 when we were supposed to.\u00a0So in 2003 when we were supposed to have started manufacturing cocoa butter, cake, and powder we could not.\u00a0 We also had to let go all the people we had contracted to work for the company. Ultimately, we incurred losses.”<\/p>\n Responding to questions on the state of Calf Cocoa International now, the ex- first lady of the Republic of Ghana said plans are far advanced to revamp the company.<\/p>\n She also dispelled media reports that Calf Cocoa was paid the judgment debt in American US dollars. My Lord, \u201cwe were paid in cedis<\/span> and not dollars.\u00a0 We received 4,991,655 Ghana cedis.<\/p>\n She added, the Chinese pulled out of the project because they could not handle the unnecessary political interference<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chinese say they are no more interested in the business and have given us an option to sell their shares (51%). So as it stands now we are in search of new partners.<\/p>\n If all these political interferences stop, we can create employment for thousands of people. Two thousand eight hundred people stand to gain employment if we start operations .My Lord it may interest you to know that from 2002 when the issue started to date, the political interferences have not stopped. I don\u2019t know if they really want the project to start or not\u201d, Nana Konadu lamented.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Pearl Akanya Ofori \/ citifmonline.com\/ Ghana.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former First lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings appeared before Commission investigating past Judgment Debt payments in the country \u00a0on Monday to explain how her company was awarded a judgment debt \u00a0of over 4 million dollars as judgment debt. Caridem Development Ghana which is owned by Nana Konadu\u2019s Non- Governmental Organization, the 31st December Women\u2019s Movement, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n