We’ll support you to fulfil your mandate - Abu Jinapor assures Boundary Commission

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has assured the Ghana Boundary Commission that his outfit will ensure that the commission carries out its mandate successfully.

The commission has the responsibility of ensuring the reaffirmation, demarcation and delimitation of the country’s international land and maritime boundaries, as well as settle boundary disputes between Ghana and neighbouring countries.

However, inadequate fund and the lack of permanent office accommodation have been identified as major setbacks in the commission’s quest to fulfill its mandate.

Mr Jinapor, who paid a working visit to the commission in Accra yesterday, said it was part of his series of engagements with agencies under the ministry, as well as stakeholders in the mining sector.

Discussions at the meeting centred on the financial challenges confronting the commission, the lack of permanent office accommodation and other logistics to facilitate its work.

Significance

Mr Jinapor said the successful execution of the commission's mandate had a far-reaching impact on the stability and peace of the country and the West African region.

"This is why the commission's work is so important. I am impressed with the work it is doing here and will work with the Director-General and the management to resolve those challenges to make it fit for purpose," he said.

The minister said the petrochemical and mineral resources, as well as the land and maritime boundaries of the country, would be firmly demarcated, delimited and reaffirmed when the commission was given the needed support.

Provision of funds

The National Coordinator of the commission, Major General Emmanuel Kotia, said the provision of funds for the commission's activities, including getting permanent office accommodation, was crucial.

He said in spite of the challenges, the commission had made inroads in the implementation of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) ruling and the reaffirmation of land and maritime boundaries.

Again, Maj. Gen. Kotia said, the commission had lined up a number of initiatives with its Ivorian counterpart aimed at addressing the challenges of illegal mining at Dollar Power, a community in the Bole Bamboi District in the Northern part of Ghana which shares a border with Cote d’Ivoire.

"The two countries will meet at Dollar Power in April this year to do an assessment of how best the various dimensions could be made to look like in line with the cross-border population,” he added.

Maj. Gen. Kotia further said following the limitations in the commission's work, a proposed draft bill was being worked on, in partnership with the Lands Ministry, to enable the commission to take up additional roles of resolving internal boundary disputes, including those associated with electoral boundaries.