“I keep,saying that the Mahama administration should look at Dr Bawumia’s blueprint for galamsey and some people didn’t understand me.
“They should go in there and look at what exists there, including creating the common pool of facilities to help the miners because they can’t afford so you regulate them properly.” These were the words of private legal practitioner and host of Joy FM’s news analysis programme, Newsfile, Sampson Lardy Anyenini.
Best proposal
Discussing the illegal mining menace on Newsfile on Saturday, February 8, Mr Anyenini said the anti-galamsey blueprint proposed by the former Vice President and NPP presidential candidate in the 2024 elections, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, was the best. He therefore urged the Mahama government to adopt it.
Bawumia’s mining policy
Among others Dr Bawumia proposed the following:
- Promote mercury-free gold catcher machines for eco-friendly mining, reforming fiscal policies to incentivise exploration, and expanding the Bank of Ghana’s Gold Purchase Programme to include small-scale miners, thus enhancing local market access.
- Create value chains for minerals like aluminium, lithium, and salt, fostering job creation in mining-adjacent industries, and reclaiming mined lands for farming.
- To boost competitiveness, Dr. Bawumia proposed to allocate affordable power to mineral-based industries and mitigate illegal mining’s impact on cocoa-growing areas.
- Strengthening local content policies, supporting small-scale miners, establishing gold refineries, and implementing traceability systems to promote transparency and regional involvement.
- Set up the minerals development bank to support small-scale miners to be able to acquire the right equipment for sustainable mining, just as the ADB Bank supports farmers.
- Finally, the former Vice President envisions critical infrastructure development, such as new railway lines, to reduce transport costs and enhance Ghana’s position in the global mining sector.
For Dr Bawumia, these initiatives would make Ghana a sustainable, prosperous African mining hub.
