The mining industry is capable of transforming African economies as well as enriching its citizens, if its activities are carried out on level playing grounds for all the stakeholders, Ghana’s president has said.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo spoke at the just concluded 2019 edition of Investing in African Mining Indaba, London.
“Mining can help rapidly to grow Africa’s manufacturing sector, and be the champion of economic growth on the continent,” Akufo-Addo said while addressing the biggest gathering of leading mining investors.
Akufo-Addo recognizes that African continent has the mineral resources that are being sought after by the world, therefore the continent should not be among the poorest people in the world, if the proceeds from the resources are evenly distributed among the state and the mining companies.
The president of the country with the third world gold mining company, AngloGold Ashanti, said African people do not benefit from the wealth of their mineral resources because the mining companies tend to take everything for themselves. He noted, for instance, that in some cases, African leaders negotiate sharing formula poorly with the mining companies which at times are too vague for the people to understand, whereas companies should be transparent, accessible and easily understandable by citizens.
“Communities should be able to examine mining contracts, find out how much revenue has been generated, and how, and on what it is being spent,” Akufo-Addo said.
The president warned that Africa would achieve prosperity if raw materials extracted in Africa were used for production in Africa, without being exported.
“We cannot, and should not, continue to be merely exporters of raw materials to other countries. The value chain of mineral extraction has great potentials for job creation, and can form an essential basis for the transformation of economies around the continent,” he said.
According to Nigeria’s Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the country currently houses over two million illegal miners. Currently, mining activities only contribute 0.3% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), simply because most of the minerals are exported out of the country through illegal routes.
According to the Minister, Abubakar Bawa Bwari, the ministry is prepared to position mining to increase its contribution to GDP from its current 0.3% to 3%, by the end of 2019.
Recently, the government issued refinery license to the nation’s first gold refinery company based in southwest Ogun State. Sourcing its resources and refining locally will contribute to the nation’s GDP, the company, Kian Smith Gold Refinery, has said.
JOSEPH MAURICE OGU
