We refer to the story titled “Contractor’s action thwarting Planting for Food and Jobs initiative - MoFA“ on GhanaWeb citing GNA as its source on Friday 26th May 2017. We strongly refute the claims made against Esoko of “thwarting” the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs Program by illegally registering farmers, as they are false and based on no factual evidence. We have contacted GNA to retract this false story.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) contracted Esoko to take on the data collection activities of the Planting for Food and Jobs program in March 2017. As the story suggests, MoFA provided Esoko with a validated list of eligible farmers to register for the program. However, further direction was given by MoFA to also register farmers who are interested in the program but not on the list.

We are setting it straight that the basis on which we are alleged to have thwarted the program is in line with the agreement we have with MoFA. We can confirm we have completed the first phase of the project and the Ministry is satisfied with the work done so far. We have informed the Ministry about these allegations and they have expressed their deep disappointment.

After further investigation, we found out that the Deputy Director mentioned in the story is in fact a District MIS officer – and therefore not a credible source of information for the Ministry. Also, the Esoko supervisor mentioned in the story does not officially represent our company and was only contracted for the duration of the deployment. We have contacted the journalist who has acknowledged his mistake, based on the fact that he did not contact the right persons at MoFA and Esoko for factual information on the project before reporting.

It is further evident that the journalist did not do his homework as he falsely reports Esoko as being a South African NGO – Esoko is a Ghanaian private company.

It is rather unfortunate that this article was published and circulated since it is false and seeks to tarnish our reputation in a project we have tirelessly worked towards.

We ask that the Ghana Web immediately take down this story from your website. Counting on your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Simone

----------------------------------------- Simone Fugar |

Esoko Ghana Communications Manager

42 Ring Road Central, Accra, Ghana

T: +233 30 221 1611

M: 0208668691

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