By Mildred Siabi-Mensah
Sekondi, May 03, GNA – Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, also the flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for Election 2024, says he will put in place pragmatic natural resources governance approach to ensure full benefits from the country’s mineral reserves.
“Gold and other minerals have been shipped out of our country and many of those minerals come from the Western Region. But, when you come to this place, what is the development? There is vast wasteland,” he said.
He added: “We can use the mining resources to transform our country, and one of the major things I want to talk about in terms of a policy shift, is the management of our natural resources. We have natural resources, but we are not maximizing the benefits from natural resources.
He said ownership of Ghana’s mineral resources should be 100 percent Ghanaian, stressing that the new paradigm should also target value addition.
Dr. Bawumia said this at a meeting with the Western Region House of Chiefs as part of his campaign tour in the region.
“Ghana has seven gold belts, Axim to Lawra to Nangodi. According to the Geological Survey Authority, we have at least 5 billion ounces of gold yet to be explored. That’s about $10 trillion at today’s prices. We need change in the scope in the new paradigm,” he told the chiefs.
He said formalising small-scale mining and use of modern equipment for extraction of gold, while ensuring operators paid taxes would be better “than smuggle all these golds out of Ghana.”
Dr. Bawumia stated that the new policy would also focus on the creation of Minerals Development Bank, a major plank for “this new mining sector that we want to develop.”
The idea of formalising the small-scale mining sector and licensing, he argued, could not be successful without the participation of the chiefs, adding, that “we will have to make the necessary amendments to the Minerals and Mining Act,”
Further, the Minerals Commission and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would be decentralised in the various districts to check contamination of water bodies.
He said: “Now, coming to the Western Region, it is very, very important to meet the owners of the land, to ask for your blessing on this journey that I have embarked on, to listen to you. In fact, I want to listen more than even talk to hear what your concerns are. You are the repository of wisdom.”
Dr. Bawumia mentioned that, as part of the NPP Manifesto, a Chieftaincy Development Fund would be created to support the chiefs, noting that the GHc400 allowances increased to GHc1,000, was still woefully inadequate.
He noted concerns of the House that the Western Region produced most of Ghana’s resources in Ghana, however, the benefits did not commensurate with the development of the region.
He said: “That is something that doesn’t make sense. We need a special development vehicle to make sure that the Region will benefit from the resources and that’s reflected in our manifesto. If we don’t get it right, it creates room for anger and instability, that’s unfair and in me you have a partner who will restore that fairness to the Region.”
The Vice President told the House that digitalisation of the lands would streamline ownership issues around lands, especially stool lands, to remove the use of land guards.
Acting President, Western Region House of Chiefs, Awulae Amihere Kpanyinli III, complained that the Region was a vital contributor to Ghana’s economic development, but “epitomises the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty.”
The Region, he added, was helpless with no legacy, saying, “We want equality and equity in Ghana’s developmental agenda.
“We call on the extractive industry to have a special social investment for the Region and representation on government institutions. We call on the government to dedicate 10 percent of mineral resources from the region –for the strategic development for the region.”
GNA