Government urged to develop national mineral policy

GNA – Dr. Thomas Akabzaa, Senior Lecturer at the Earth
Science Department of the University of Ghana, has called on government to
immediately develop a national mineral policy, spelling out the country’s
expectations of her mineral wealth.
He said the development of such a policy should involve effective and
well coordinated public participation with a clear national vision to ensure
that the country got the best deal out of the sector as happened in
Botswana.
Dr. Akabzaa made the call when he delivered the first Ghana Catholic
Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) public lecture series on the topic: “Over 100
years of mining in Ghana: To whose benefits”, in Accra on Thursday.
It was organised by the Dialogue and Advocacy Good Governance Office
(DAGG) of the GCBC in collaboration with Catholic Association of Media
Practitioners-Ghana (CAMP-G), to educate and inform Ghanaians about the true
state of the mining sector of the country.
Dr. Akabzaa said government must foster development, and closer
collaboration among mining sector governmental institutions including
academic institutions to critically assess the contributions of mining to
the national economy and fashion out a way forward for the sector.
He said as it stood now, mining, even though a useful sector did not
offer much as other sectors such as agriculture and banking did, adding that
its contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product rose to only five
per cent in 2008 down from 1.5 per cent in 1980.
Dr Akabzaa said in the last few years, the sector had been recording a
boom in terms of world market prices for minerals.
He said government’s 2010 budget, which recommended that mining firms
should pay six per cent royalty instead of the current three per cent being
paid, was not feasible.
Dr. Akabzaa said this would not be adhered to because the legal regime
in terms of agreements signed with the firms was against the recommendation.
He called for a more transparent mineral revenue distribution mechanism
that would deliver benefits to communities affected by mining because
activities of the sector had affected the environment and rendered the
inhabitants with little or no meaningful livelihood opportunities.
Dr Akabzaa said unlike other productive sectors, mining did not offer
opportunities for others on the other side of the productive chain to
benefit.
“All its opportunities end in the mines,” he said, and called for a
carefully crafted local content policy with timeliness to achieve optimal
benefits from the sector throughout the value chain.
Dr. Akabzaa called for national consensus on development mining and
resources to solve the contentious issue of mining in protected areas which
had been a source of antagonism between environmentalists and inhabitants of
those areas on one hand, and mining firms on the other hand.
He could not state whether or not mining was beneficial to Ghana but
said that depending on where one stood, yes or no could be his or her
response.
Dr. Akabzaa said “Depending on the lens from which benefits of the
sector have been evaluated, there is no consensus. From corporate, some
governmental, consulting firms and academic actors, the sector has produced
profound benefits. For others especially local communities impacted by
mining projects and/or their sympathizers, the benefits are at best very
minimal”.
The Reverend Father Patrick Amos, Director of DAGG, said the lecture
series would inform the citizenry about the true state of the sector rather
than relying on politicians and investors for facts on the sector.
Nana Kwabena Nketsia V, Omanhen of Essikado Traditional Area in Western
Region, who chaired the event, said the fact that the control of the mineral
resources was not left in the hands of the local people meant that their
exploitation was unethical and only contributed to gross mal-development of
the local communities.
GNA