President Nana Akufo-Addo
PRESIDENT AKUFO-Addo
has expressed worry about the low local participation in the country’s mining
industry.
Speaking at the
inauguration of the Governing Board of the Minerals Income Investment Fund
(MIIF) at the Jubilee House recently in Accra, the president wondered why after
a century of mining in Ghana, there was no significant Ghanaian local domestic
player in the industry.
Indicating that
such a situation was not good enough, he said “the monetization of the mineral
royalties will raise enough funds upfront to support the government’s development
agenda and also help boost the development of local players in our mining
industry.”
The fund is
intended to receive minerals, royalties and other related income that are due
the republic from the various mining companies and provide for the management
of these funds.
It would also
create a special purpose vehicle that would be called Asaase Royalties, to
raise cash up to half a billion dollars, by selling up to 49 per cent stake
Asaase Royalties through and Initial Public Offering (IPO), which is going to
be listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
President
Akufo-Addo therefore charged the first governing board of the newly established
MIIF to use the financial resources entrusted to them to raise indigenous
players in the mining sector which has hitherto been dominated by international
corporations.
“Hopefully, this
fund, when properly managed and selectively invested, will over the period of
time erase that image and give us a new architecture in the mining industry
which includes significant Ghanaian players,” he said, insisting “it shouldn’t
be the case that Newmont, Anglogold Ashanti and all these others are the only
players in the Ghanaian industry.”
Chairman of the
MIIF Governing Board and Member of Parliament (MP) for Tarkwa-Nsuaem, George
Mireku Duker, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, thanked the President for
the confidence reposed in them and pledged to live up to expectation whiles “South
Africa for example, has developed because the mining companies there are owned
by South Africans, Ghanaians are lacking in this perspective and that is why
your vision to ensure that the local content aspect of this field is really
moved by this board and we are going to go by that charge,” he assured.
Other members of
the Governing Board are the CEO of MIIF, Yaw Baah; Felicia Ashley, representative
of the Ministry of Finance; Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari, Deputy Governor of the
Bank of Ghana; Amishaddai Owusu – Amoah, Commissioner for Domestic Tax Revenue
Division of GRA; Naana Dufie Addo, President’s nominee; Kow Essuman,
President’s nominee, and Antoinette Kwofie, also a nominee of the President.
A ninth member who
is supposed to be a representative of the Ministry of Lands and Natural
Resources is yet to be appointed.
According to the
Minerals and Income Investment Fund Act, 218, (Act 978), the Act is to
establish a fund to manage the equity interests of the Republic of Ghana in
mining companies, to receive mineral royalties and other related income due the
republic from mining operations, to provide for the management and investment
of the assets of the fund and for related matters.
The Act was endorsed by the president on the 3rd of December, 2018, after it was passed into law by Parliament.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent
