By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, who doubles as Member Parliament (MP) of Ellembelle constituency in the Western Region, Mr. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has rejected calls by a section of the Ghanaian public for a temporary ban on the importation of excavators as a measure to curb illegal mining (Galamsey) in Ghana.
According to the Lands minister, excavators serve multiple purposes beyond mining, thus making an outright ban impractical.
Mr. Armah-Kofi Buah, speaking in a one-on-one interview on Accra-based Channel One TV’s current affairs programme, “The Point of View,” on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, explained that the government can not ban the importation of excavators because there are many other activities for which they are used.
The Minister again reiterated the need for a robust system to monitor and regulate the use of excavators by referencing the Minerals Commission’s pilot tracking program, which employs geo-fencing technology to monitor 70 excavators, allowing authorities to track their locations in real time.
“The thing is that we have to put a system in place. Already, the Minerals Commission has a tracking programme, so far on an experimental basis, of 70 excavators that they can track using geo-fencing technology. And that is working very well; they know exactly 24 hours where that excavator is,” Mr Armah Buah noted.
He, however, proposed expanding this tracking system in collaboration with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Ministry of Transport to ensure comprehensive registration and monitoring of all excavator owners.
The Ellembelle lawmaker also underscored the government’s commitment to holding accountable those involved in illegal activities.
“How do we expand that, and how do we work with the DVLA, work with the Ministry of Transport to ensure that we know every excavator owner who registered it?
Ultimately, what we saying is that working with the Attorney General and the Interior Ministry, if any excavator is involved in any illegality, we are not only arresting the person, but with the system in place, we go for all the big guys who buy it.”
Data available shows that in 2024 alone, under the New Patriotic administration led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, self-propelled bulldozers with 360 super structure, which amounted to GHC6.20 billion, resulting in a 2.5% increase in the year preceding 2024, were imported.
