The Managing Director of the New Times Corporation (NTC), Mr Martin Adu-Owusu, has pledged his outfit’s support to the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), in its quest to combat Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (ML/FT) in the country.
He said education and information sharing constituted important factors in curbing the menace and that the NTC was ready to collaborate in that direction.
The Managing Director gave the assurance when Mr Timothy Melaye, the Head of Communication and Advocacy of GIABA led a five member delegation to pay a working visiting to the Management of NTC, publishers of the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers in Accra yesterday.
He was accompanied by Mr Usman Muhammad, Communications Assistant, Ms Rose Sall Diop of GIABA, Mr Mawell Boakye-Agyeman and Rhoda Authur of the Financial Intelligence Centre Ghana.
The NTC team comprise the Editor of the Ghanaian Times, Mr David Agbenu, Editor of the Spectator, Mrs Georgina Naa Maku Quaitoo, Mr Suleman Osman, acting Human Resource and Administrative Manager, Mr Alfred Koomson, Channel and Circulation Manager, Technical Service Manager, Mr John Lawson and Mr Ismaila Attaul-lah, acting internal auditor.
The meeting was for GIABA to solicit for support from the NTC in combating money laundering and terrorist financing in the country and the sub-region.
It was also aimed at establishing a desk for GIABA in media houses to increase awareness on the fight against ML/FT.
Mr Adu-Owusu said the dangers of money laundering was a cause for concern and stressed the need for all to collaborate to combat ML/FT.
He assured of the corporation’s readiness to collaborate with GIABA in educating the public on the effect of money laundering and terrorism financing in the sub-region.
Mr Adu-Owusu commended the members of the team for their initiative in fighting ML/FT in the region.
Mr Melaye, for his part, said ML/FT affects the development of every country, adding that $88 billion was taken out of Africa every year.
He said criminals used their proceeds of crimes to buy properties out of the country to the detriment of their economy.
Mr Melaye stressed the need to train more journalists to keep them abreast on issues, know how these criminals operate to inform the public on issues of ML/FT.
Mr Agbenu applauded GIABA, for partnering the media to educate the public on need to prevent ML/FT issues in the country.
He said most institutions did not consider the media, they only have after- taught, adding that such practice did not help journalists to be abreast on their issues.
The Editor called on the GIABA team to train more journalists in all spheres of the profession to be well-informed to educate the public.
“In every activity there is money laundering, educating journalists in all areas of their profession would help them identify such trends and educate the public accordingly,” he added.
GIABA, established in 1999 is a specialised institution of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which has the mandate to protect the economies of West African member states from exploitation for laundering the proceeds of crime.
BY ANITA NYARKO-YIRENKYI
