Business News of Sunday, 16 July 2017
Source: citibusinessnews.com
2017-07-16
Revenue management proved to be the weakest element in governance of Ghana’s mining sector
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has indicated that it will by 19th July this year implement a Multilateral Mining Integrated Project aimed at sanitizing the country’s mining sector.
In an interview with Citi Business News at the sidelines of the launch of the Governance Index Report, Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu Bio said implementation of the multilateral mining integrated project will improve the mining sector by tackling illegalities, as well as ensure the efficient use of revenue generated from the mining sector for economic development.
“ Ghanaians cannot actually point out that this is what the money from our resources have done and on that point, I’ll say that we are at fault. It’s important that we should channel those revenues into concrete structures that one day we can point out to the youth who are growing up,” he said.
“ so that we can say ,when we had oil, this is what we used the monies for but as to it being misused no ,it is being used well and the resources are being tracked with the public accountability team that we have,” he added. He indicated that the report by the Natural Resource Governance Institute will be used as a basis for effective implementation of the project “Now the report is out so we will have a look at it and know the way forward on how best to implement the project”
About National Resource Governance Index
The 2017 Resource Governance Index which was published in London surveyed a total of 81 countries involved in oil, gas and mining. The report aims at assessing policies and practices that authorities employ to govern the said resources in their countries.
Revenue management proved to be the weakest element in governance of Ghana’s mining sector as Ghana performed poorly and ranked 23rd among 33 countries assessments of sub national revenue sharing mechanisms.
However, African Consultant for the Natural Resource Governance Institute, Emmanuel Kuyole said the report should direct policy makers in improving upon the governance of the country’s natural resources to better the livelihoods of the nation’s citizens.
“We believe that this report should guide our policy makers in putting the revenue generated from our resources into good use”
