GTA executives pose with Abeiku and Akosua Agyapong
Abeiku Santana’s hope of becoming the country’s ‘jollof’ chef turned a mirage when he lost the title to Yoks Car Rentals boss, Seth Yeboah Ocran, after an exciting ‘jollof’ rice cooking competition.
“I was very confident I will be the winner in this CEOs challenge since I had learnt a lot of cooking skills in my childhood, I am not worried because it’s a competition and one must be ready to accept any decision; the ultimate to me is to promote the preparation and consumption of ‘jollof’ rice and other locally-made products,” he stated.
Abeiku Santana, Ghana’s tourism ambassador and CEO of Kaya (Feeling) Tours, placed second, while Akwasi Agyeman, Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) CEO, held on to the third position in the competition.
Each received a certificate and sponsor’s packages for their efforts, while the overall winner (Seth Yeboah Ocran) is expected to tour any all-expenses-paid tourist destination of his choice.
The event which was organised by the GTA under the auspices of Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture was held at the Legon Botanical Gardens, Accra, last Saturday.
According to Akwasi Agyeman, the ‘jollof’ festival which is dubbed ‘Eat Ghana Festival’ forms part of activities marking its flagship campaign ‘See Ghana, Eat Ghana, Wear Ghana, Feel Ghana’.
For the second segment of the competition, Gambia emerged the overall winner with the preparation of ‘chepjollof’.
They received a trophy, certificate and a sponsor’s hamper.
They will represent their country in the Akwaaba Festival in Nigeria later this year.
Nigeria came second with ‘Nigerian style jollof rice’, Ghana third with egg plant and ‘kobi jollof’ and Senegal fourth with ‘tiepyaap jollof’.
The leader of the judging team, Jan Van der Veer of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, while lauding the various groups of contestants, expressed delight that the GTA was exercising its mandate in promoting the preparation, consumption of indigenous diets, including clothing and tourism.
“It is good for the GTA to sensitise the public to develop rich appetite for its produce since this is the only to lower importation of such products which by far place a burden on the national economy,” he stated.
The Gambia Consular in Ghana, Yaffa Husain, lauded the winners for making their countries proud with their local nutritious ‘jollof’ rice preparation.
By Solomon Ofori