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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disclosed authorities is prioritising worth addition within the pure assets sector to make sure the state derives optimum advantages.
The federal government, he mentioned, can be strengthening native content material and native participation as effectively to make sure Ghanaians have extra roles within the extraction of those assets.
In accordance with him, that is crucial in view of the truth that the world’s poorest international locations are these with the most important deposits of mineral assets.
Delivering the keynote deal with on the Pure Assets Stakeholder Dialogue in Accra on Thursday, eleventh Might 2023, President Akufo-Addo indicated that 60% of the world’s extraordinarily poor dwell in sub-Saharan Africa with most resource-rich international locations on the continent being among the many poorest on this planet.
“These embrace international locations that maintain large deposits of iron ore, diamonds, bauxite and the most important mineral reserves on this planet; the most important producer of cobalt, the second largest producer of commercial diamonds, and fifth largest producer of copper; in addition to the world’s largest reserves of bauxite.”
“Worst of all, most of the areas the place these assets are discovered look like among the many most disadvantaged areas on this planet. In our nation for instance, Obuasi, which, for years, hosted the richest gold mine on this planet, stays largely underdeveloped. The story isn’t any totally different from different areas equivalent to Tarkwa, Prestea, Wassa, and Bibiani, which have for hundreds of years been the attraction for adventurers and fortune seekers.”
In accordance with the President, many causes account for these together with poor and short-sightedness in negotiations with firms that exploit these pure assets; corruption, incompetence and political instability, failure to place in place the requisite framework to ascertain the best finish of the worth chain of the extractive business and intensive tax and royalty exemptions amongst others.
These, he mentioned, have resulted in extraordinary income to mining firms on the expense of householders of those assets.
He careworn that after centuries of exploitation, Africa nonetheless holds some 30% of the world’s mineral reserves, and even increased proportions of gold, diamond, bauxite and manganese however the contribution of those assets to socio-economic improvement has been considerably terrible.
“With all these assets, we should always have been the richest continent on this planet. The irony, nonetheless, is that Africa stays the poorest continent on the planet.”
“We can’t repeat these errors. Whereas we perceive that mining firms should make a revenue from their enterprise, it will be important that that is completed not on the expense of the lands and the folks that present these assets,” he mentioned.
President Akufo-Addo careworn that these states ought to harness their pure assets for sustainable improvement, which requires exploitation of those assets don’t destroy the pure atmosphere.
Minister for Lands and Pure Assets, Samuel Abu Jinapor, in his deal with, assured the federal government stays dedicated to working with all stakeholders to assemble a sustainable and value-added pure assets sector anchored on transparency, integrity and utmost good religion for the advantage of the Ghanaian folks, the true homeowners of those assets.
In accordance with him, the administration of pure assets isn’t just about safety and exploitation, but in addition extra importantly about sustainability, environmental safety, mitigating local weather disaster, and guaranteeing optimum profit for the homeowners of those assets.
“That’s the reason, pursuant to the directions of President Akufo-Addo, we now have been taking a number of measures, over the previous few years, to make sure the efficient, environment friendly and sustainable administration of our pure assets, and even, considerably, implementing insurance policies aimed toward retaining the worth chain of those assets in-country.”
He expressed hope by way of the Dialogue, a standard path can be charted to handle Ghana’s pure assets sustainably, add worth to them, retain the best finish of the business, contribute to the nationwide economic system and defend the atmosphere for the collective good.
Supply: Peacefmonline.com
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