By Erica Apeatua Addo, GNA
Tarkwa (W/R), May 4, GNA – The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has broken grounds for the construction of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) Technical Training Centre on the campus of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa.
The centre would have a 500-seater auditorium lecture hall, a library, and offices to support the running of practical Programmes in Nickel Smiting, Jewelry technology and Hall marking Jewelry of international standards, while exploring artificial intelligence and smart systems in mineral value addition.
Speaking at the ceremony held at the UMaT, President Akufo-Addo said jewelry distribution was recognized as an important valued addition process to growth.
According to the President, “Through the construction of this centre, we expect a delivery that a new breed of jewellers will be trained here. They will be imbued with the requisite training to become very good jewellers who will also be trained in how to build businesses.
“And equally important, they will be given a skill that will turn Ghana into a jewellery bar for Africa. Any visitors to the country should demand Ghana’s gold jewelry the same way our kente is becoming an influential souvenir to every tourist.
“This building is to be completed within eight months and we will be here to commission it. I am confident that this technical center will not only benefit the students and faculty of this university but elsewhere to cultivate the advancement of the mining industry as a whole,” President Akufo-Addo said
Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, the Minister for finance, explained that the partnership that MIIF had formed in a short time, were of significance, and one of such partnership was with the UMaT.
He revealed that MIIF had a collaborated framework agreement with the UMaT that spelt off four different components, “The first is the MIIF UMaT scholarship for women in mining communities. This will be launched in a month, and every year, 90 beneficiaries will be supported with scholarships for 10 years.
The second is the construction of the UMaT Technical Training and Jewelry Center, the third is the MIIF-UMaT speaker series, a talk leadership event that bridges academia and practice had been held twice already on campus and the fourth is the continuous training of MIIF staff to understand the technicalities and the complexity associated with the mineral sub sector”.
For his part, Mr John Ntim Fordjour, the Deputy Minister of Education, said under the extraordinary the President Akuffo-Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia have experienced tremendous uplift in infrastructure.
He said, “I’m zoning down in UMaT with the great support the President has given us over the years and what we are witnessing today is a testament to the fact that Universities are being repositioned to be a credible tools to support the industry and to be centers of innovations where researchers in the 21 century would be seen.
“I’m equally grateful to the Minister of Finance and the leadership of the MIIF for the swift commitment in seeing to the establishment to this vision of the President and now commencing a project that is going to ensure that the day’s where greater proposition of the gold and diamonds that we produced in this country found their way out of the shores of this country would become a thing of the past”, Mr Fordjour indicated.
The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources disclosed that MIIF had considered constructing a multi-purpose mining museum in Africa to showcase how they started their mining, and largely project their tradition of mining.
He expressed gratitude to President Akufo-Addo for giving him the opportunity to serve as the founding chairman of MIIF, “l must commend the current board chairman Professor Douglas Boating, Chief Executive Officer Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng and his team.”
Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, the Western Regional Minister, thanked the President, “saying the MIIF is a huge project in our region, and we express our readiness to the University to sustain the project.”
MIIF was set up by the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978) as amended to receive royalties from minerals accruing to government, invest those royalties to secure the future wealth of the country and manage the equity interest of Ghana in large scale mining firms.
GNA