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Managing Director (MD) of Japan Motors Trading Company Ltd, Salem Kalmoni, has revealed that he did not pay a dime to sit at the high table together with President Nana Akufo-Addo at a recently held awards ceremony.

His comments comes on the back of accusations by the Minority in parliament that the Trade Ministry charged expatriates an amount up to $100,000 at an awards ceremony organized by the Millennium Excellence Foundation.

But Mr Kalmoni in an interview with Kasapa FM during a Presser held  in the capital, Accra on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 said he did not pay any money, adding “Absolutely zero, not one cedi…I was on the table, a few seats away from the president.”

Kalmoni’s company picked up an award at the ceremony and maintained his outfit will support the initiative in subsequent editions.

“I think it is new, an award to honour expatriates and natural expatriates who are part of the Ghanaian community and I will be supportive of such an action. There are so many awards and this is another out of the box idea and I will be supporting it,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Trade and Industry has described as baseless reports circulating that the Ministry charged expatriates between 25,000 to 100,000 dollars to be offered seats close to the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the awards ceremony.

The Member of Parliament for Asawase, Muntaka Mubarak had alleged on the floor of parliament that the fees charged at the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards were not approved by Parliament, adding that the monies accrued were also not accounted for in the Internally Generated Funds [IGF] of the Ministry’s accounts.

The Ghana Business Expatriates awards was held on December 8 at the Movenpick Hotel in Accra where Twenty-four expatriate businesses operating in the country were honoured for their outstanding performance over the years.