The Mining sector accounted for 18% of direct domestic revenue in Ghana between 2017 to 2022 and is the key driver of the economic progress of the country.
The President of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and Head of Goldfields West Africa Ingineer Joshua Mortoti made this known at an editors forum organized by the Ghana Chamber of Mines in Accra .
On employment, Mr Mortoti said producing mining companies in the country employed 11, 284 persons in 2022 with an expatriate population of 93. He said the mining sector also created 169, 260 indirect jobs in 2022 and accounts for 1.5 %of the country’s labour force according to 2019 report of the Ghana Statistical Service.
Ingineer Joshua Mortoti said organized large scale mining companies in the country are making huge contribution to the country’s economy.
However, he said illegal mining is a great menace in the mining industry hence no effort should be spared to address the menace with the support of the media.
“The introduction of capping of earmarked funds has meant that Minerals Development Funds ( MDF ) beneficiary communities have received reduced amounts.
MDF received Ghc 285.5 million instead of instead of Ghc 359.2 million reflecting a shortfall of Ghc 78.6 million creamed into the consolidated fund,” Mr Joshua Mortoti stated.
“The Chamber has called for exclusion of Minerals Development Fund from fiscal measures since it perpetuates poor state of infrastructure in mining communities,” Mr Joshua Mortoti added.
In order to make the country derive more benefits from the mining sector, he said there is the need to focus on harnessing full benefit beyond the direct fiscal contribution of the sector to the economy.
Also, according to Ingineer Joshua Mortoti mining should be positioned as a catalyst for enhancing local content as well as integrating the sector into the non mineral economy.
He solicited the partnership of the media in leveraging the mining sector to facilitate broad based national development .
Source: Emmanuel Akorli
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