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Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appointed media mogul and former diplomat Edward Boateng as the managing director of the state-owned oil refinery, Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
The media mogul served as Ghana’s fifteenth ambassador to China from June 2017 to November 2020. He concurrently served as the country’s ambassador to Mongolia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea during the same period.
TOR is a 45,000-barrel-per-stream-day (bpsd) production facility. It is Ghana’s only refinery, among the first eight refineries in Africa as of 1963.
Boateng inherits TOR’s leadership at a tense moment after refinery workers called for the dissolution of the board and the removal of its former managing director, Francis Boateng, and his deputy, Ato Morrison.
TOR’s tension was triggered by a debt worth more than ₵167 million ($27.82 million), which it owed the Ghana Revenue Authority and other state agencies. The debt was accumulated when the refinery failed to service its debts to several state agencies.
Graphic Online reported that the workers have said the debt was a threat to the refinery’s survival and petitioned President Akufo-Addo to intervene.
Following their agitation, Energy Minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh sacked Francis Boateng and Ato Morrison on June 11 from their positions in the company.
The Ghanaian tycoon is the founder and chairman of the Johannesburg-based media conglomerate Global Media Alliance, which he established in 1998.
Before then, he worked with leading international media companies, including Turner Broadcasting System and CNN. Boateng is reputed for establishing the CNN African Journalists Awards to recognize excellence in journalism in Africa.As of 2015, Good Manamc pegged his net worth at $118 million.
