[ 2014-09-19 ]

Empower mining communities with law on royalty usage
Concerns of local communities in the use of
mineral royalties would be addressed when the
country enacts a Mineral Revenue Law, the Ghana
Chamber of Mines has advocated.

Mining communities directly bear the brunt of
mineral exploitation, especially environmental
pollution. People in these communities however
complain they see no benefits of mining to improve
their livelihood.

The proper use and formula for sharing of mining
royalties are thorny issues in mining communities.
Among concerns is that government has used the
revenue from mining without addressing the
development challenges of local mining
communities.

Tutuka Central is a small town affected by mining
exploration at Obuasi in the Ashanti region. Local
electoral area representative, Gifty Owusu Afriyie
expects that the municipal assembly would invest
its share of mineral royalties in providing
potable water for her constituents.

“Even communities which are not closer to the
mines have their rivers polluted… so I want the
Assembly to increase provision of pipe borne
water,” she requested.

The consensus is that deprivation of local people
of benefits from mineral resources could be
disastrous as they sacrifice farms and livelihood
sources for mining to thrive.

The Centre for Social Impact Studies (CeSIS), an
NGO, has advocated that local assemblies be made
to be accountable in the use of mineral revenue.

Public Affairs and Environmental Director at the
Chamber of Mines, Ahmed Nantogmah, believes the
passage of the mineral revenue legislation would
empower mining communities to demand
accountability in the application of royalties.

“So that people will spend mineral revenue
according to particular stipulations and
regulation,” he opined.

He noted that it is high time government heeded
the suggestion for the law, which should be
fashioned along the lines of the Petroleum Revenue
Management Law.

“Recently we've seen that the Minerals
Commission has come up with guidelines on
utilization of royalties but we believe that it
should go beyond the guidelines,” stated Mr.
Nantogmah.

Local assemblies presently access 10 percent of
total mineral royalties received by government for
community development projects.

The Chamber has reiterated calls on government for
the amount to be increased to 30 percent.

This in addition to targeted spending of the
royalties would help drive local development, said
Mr. Nantogmah.

Source - Luv News

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