Accra, Oct. 19, GNA – A Deputy Minister for
Lands and Natural Resources, Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, has outlined measures
being pursued by government to attract more women into the mining sector.
Speaking at the Women in Mining CSR workshop
in Accra, Mrs Oteng-Gyasi urged companies to team up with government to create
innovative public-private partnerships that empower women to participate and
thrive in the mining industry.
There were also moves to recruit promising
talents and train them in emerging technologies and called on companies to
support the development of talents in
education, but it should also act to bridge the Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) gender divide;
Mrs Oteng-Gyasi said government was also
looking at training to take advantage of the new technologies, adding that the
digital revolution was a chance to unlock the economic potential of hundreds of
women in Ghana’s mining industry.
In this direction, she said, government will
resource George Grant University of Mines and Technology and the other mining
related training institutions to train more women in Automotive Technology to
take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution, especially Artificial
Intelligence and the use of robotics in mining.
Mrs Oteng-Gyasi said government was also
looking at benchmarking Gender Equality in the Mining Sector to track progress.
She said one of the key strategies that would
be deployed will be the creation of key gender sensitive indicators,
specifically designed to reflect changes in the status and roles of men and
women in the mining industry.
This included sex disaggregated data on female
and male labour force participation rate, opportunities for professional
development and satisfaction with support provided, and percentage of females
and males with relevant skills set for employment.
There was also the need to provide legal
incentives to enhance women’s access to land and licences in the Minerals and
Mining Act, which was currently under review.
“Some of the terms of the Act; something like
stability and development provisions, because government as much as possible
want to improve the fiscal regime in the mining industry to ensure that we
obtain optimum revenue from the mining sector. As well, we look at the women
and gender issues and how we can support women in the small scale sector especially.”
Meanwhile, statistics show that only seven per
cent of women were working in the mining industry. A situation, women in the
mining sector have described as discouraging.
Dr Heather Cameron, the Canadian High
Commissioner to Ghana, said more commitment was needed to ensure that the
indispensable role of women in economic development was realised.
She called for more attention to STEM
programme for women to bridge the gap and unleashed the dynamic role of women
in the mining sector.
The Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs
and Sustainability at Asanko Gold, Mr Frederick Attakumah, said when more women
work in the mining sector, it would help unlock the potential of women in
mining.
Rev. Dr Joyce Aryee, Former Chief Executive
Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, who chaired the workshop, said although
some progress had been made towards addressing the imbalance, there was much
more left to be done.
The workshop was on the theme: “Ghana’s Mining
and Regulatory Framework: Challenges and Opportunities for Enhancing Women
Participation.”
GNA