Hot!
Frozen Tax: JoyNews investigation exposes fraudulent frozen food companies at port
The Workers Union of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) at a durbar on July 24, 2019, criticised the political class.
They alleged that family relations and close associates of people with political power and influence were using their influences to clear goods at the ports without paying the required tax.
They argued that that phenomenon was contributing to the revenue shortfalls of the country.
The accusations by the staff of GRA struck a chord with the investigator. So on August 1, 2019, in a sting operation after the launch of Operation “collect, name, and shame,” a team from the Customs Staff Association and two other labour unions stormed the premises of Labianca Company Limited to examine the consignment declared in the name of Ajax Company Limited and White Stone Frozen Food limited.
The objective was to verify the contents of 72, forty-footer containers at their premises following a tipoff that the companies involved had given false information to customs officials.
After an hour’s search, the team found out that the frozen food companies had concealed boxes of chicken instead of Sardinella fish they had stated on their declaration forms.
On 30th July 2019, one of the frozen food companies, Ayax Company Limited, gave misleading information about the content of some twenty forty-footer containers.
In two separate shipments made on 26th of July, 2019 with declaration numbers 42019305804/0 and 4201305794/0, Ayax Company Limited paid a duty of GHc168,731.68, and GHc166,731.68 totaling GHc335,463.36. By virtue of the misclassification of the content of the containers, Ayax Company Limited ended up underpaying a tax of GHc377.232.2 to the state.
White Stone Frozen Foods Limited also declared to customs authorities as Sardinella fish instead of chicken, content of at least five forty-footer containers with varying declaration numbers heavily protected by armed men.
Documents sighted by JoyNews show that the container with commodity code 03035300, 03035400 with varying declaration numbers, paid a duty totaling GHS851,102.5 withholding GHc807,915.12 which should have gone to the state.
Ayax Company Limited and White Stone Frozen Foods Limited paid GHc1,019,834.18 instead of GHc2,204,147.32. So in as the documents show, in just a single shipment, the two companies put together failed to pay taxes amounting to GHS1,185,147.32 million.
In the heat of the moment during one of the days of the investigations at the Tema fishing harbor, my cover was blown at the premises of Labianca Company Limited by armed officers of the Ghana Police Service who were providing security there.
Together with an Associate of Labianca company limited, they cursed and threatened to assault me. Armed offices from the Customs staff association quickly shielded me and escorted me to a nearby vehicle to prevent what would have been a brutal assault.
After months of investigations, JoyNews uncovered that by virtue of the misdescription of content of containers, the companies involved in the entire operation collected, name, and shame, underpaid a tax amount of GHS4.6 million.
Following the revelation, JoyNews confronted a representative of Ayax Company Limited with documentary evidence to enquire why the company gave misleading information to the state. His explanation was that the shipping company is the one that committed the error by deploying a container with content other than what they had purchased.
Meanwhile, attempts to get a response from White Stone frozen food limited have not yielded the desired result.
Months of attempts to get a top hierarchy at GRA to comment on the findings of this investigation have so far proved futile.
A junior rank officer at Customs who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity said, “Persons with political backing are now doing it (deliberate misdescription of products) with brazen impunity. The difficulty we have is how the law is applied. Perpetrators are allowed to walk after paying the difference when they are caught…that for me is not deterrent enough because many of them get away with it.”
The Customs Act of 2015 is clear about what should happen to persons who fall foul of the provisions.
A person who “furnishes or causes to be furnished any information relating to any matter under this Act which the person knows to be false, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than two thousand five hundred penalty units and not more than seven thousand five hundred penalty units and any goods in respect of which the act was committed is liable to forfeiture to the State.”
Section 2 of the Customs Act 2015 also states that where the full amount of duties payable under subsection (1) is not paid, “the person in contravention shall incur a penalty of not more than three hundred percent of the amount not paid in addition to forfeiture of the goods where applicable; and (b) the person is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than two hundred percent of the value of goods in question or to a term of imprisonment of not more than five years or to both”.
A portion of this penalty was triggered when after our investigations customs officials presented documents and evidence of misdescription to the companies.
There was however no evidence of forfeiture of the goods.
According to Customs officials, leakages like the one uncovered in this investigation are among the drivers of the country’s failure to generate enough revenue at the ports, making government’s ambitious Ghana Beyond Aid agenda ever herculean.
Source: www.myjoyonline.com
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
