Alan promises to audit mining licences

Independent presidential candidate, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, has pledged to revoke all mining licences issued in the last 15 years when elected as President. 

He said that would be followed by a thorough audit of all small-scale and community mining licences issued within this period to clean up the corrupt system that had allowed illegal mining to thrive.

In addition to the ban, Mr Kyerematen said he would oversee the demobilisation of all mining machinery across the country, especially those used in small-scale and community mining.

Under that intervention, the 48 Engineer’s Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces would oversee the dismantling and safe storage of such equipment to prevent further illegal mining.

"We cannot continue to reward those who have benefited from the destruction of our natural resources. It’s time for accountability,” Mr Kyerematen said at a press conference in Accra last Sunday to outline what he called the 10-point policy blueprint to deal with the illegal mining menace in the country.

“The time for half measures is over,” Mr Kyerematen emphasised. "We need to take real action to stop the destruction of our environment.”

The strategy outlines measures to enforce stricter regulations on the mining industry towards a responsible and transparent sector.

10-point blueprint

The policy blueprint also includes a complete restoration of all rivers to reduce current turbidity levels within a year while the ban is enforced.

“This exercise will be coordinated by the Water Resources Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and other relevant regulatory institutions, as well as the military,” he said.

Mr Kyerematen also said he would ensure the complete restoration and regeneration of all degraded lands within a year of the ban, an exercise which would involve plantation development and tree planting on the degraded sites to be coordinated by the Forestry Commission and other relevant public sector institutions.

He added that all young people previously engaged in galamsey would be deployed to actively participate in the plantation exercise as a livelihood empowerment initiative within the period of the ban.

That would be followed by the establishment of a new Youth in Responsible Mining Initiative, under which groups of young people previously engaged in galamsey would be supported by the government to establish youth-owned mining companies as private legal commercial entities.

The independent candidate and leader of the Movement for Change said he would also introduce new legislation and regulations that would impose a complete ban on mining in water bodies and forest reserves. 

Medium, long term

Apart from these short-term plans, Mr Kyerematen also outlined medium-term plans to address the issue.

They include a comprehensive review of all legislation and regulations in respect of the natural resource sector to consolidate institutions with overlapping mandates, clarify regulatory functions and establish a new regime for optimising benefits from our natural resources.

The independent candidate would also “review all existing contracts in the natural resource sector, with a view to optimising benefits to the country and enhancing local content” in addition to new legislation to significantly reduce the export of raw materials from Ghana in any form without a minimum of 60 per cent value addition by the year 2030.

Mr Kyerematen said he would also amend Article 257(6) of the 1992 Constitution to establish traditional authorities as co-trustees with the President, in respect of all mineral rights in Ghana and also develop the Western Region as the Mineral Resource Processing Hub of West Africa to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Democracy Hub

Mr Kyerematen condemned the continued detention of young Ghanaians, members of the Democracy Hub, who took to the streets to express their anger and frustration at the government’s inability to deal drastically and substantively with illegal mining.

Describing it as both unlawful and unconstitutional, he said the protests had exposed the failure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government and the predecessor government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the last 32 years, to manage the natural resource endowment of the country in a sustainable way, and to optimise the benefits of the resources for the Ghanaian people.

The demonstration was the group’s constitutional right as it was of every Ghanaian, to express freely their opinions and to assemble in pursuit of that right of freedom of expression and movement, Mr Kyerematen said.

While commending the police for their handling of the protests, he described as offensive for the police and the Attorney-General’s Office to bring charges of “conspiracy to commit crime and committing crime in the nature of unlawful assembly,” when the police were aware that the demonstration would take place, and did not take judicial steps to stop it but went ahead and supervised the action for three days.