By Felix Cofie
President Nana Akufo-Addo has stated that the government will not condone any illegality in the mining sector looking at the negative consequences that illegal mining has had on the environment.
He said his government is not against mining but what he is against is the negative methods that some foreigners in connivance with Ghanaians have employed which is impacting negatively on the environment. Speaking at the launch of the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme for illegal miners, President Akufo-Addo warned that those illegal miners who operate under the cover of darkness will soon be flashed out.
The National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme is pursuant to the vision of the President aimed at ameliorating the unintended and unavoidable hardships of Operation Halt 2 activities. Modules under the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood programme are the National Land Reclamation and Re-Afforestation, Agriculture and Agro-Processing, Apprenticeship, Skills Training and Entrepreneurship, Mine support Services, Responsible, Viable and sustainable small scale mining among others. President Akufo Addo stated that the programme is designed to alleviate the hardship associated with the government’s efforts to sanitize the mining sector. He said 200,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created with this programme.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Samuel Abu Jinapor said the Community Mining Scheme which will be created under the programme will not be run as a galamsey site. He said Small scale mining contributes about 40% of gold production in the country. He said the project community mining is the fulcrum to bring sanity to the mining sector by granting some concessions to the youth who still want to go into mining.
