Benito in smock and S.K. Boafo ready to plant a tree at the launch
MINERALS
COMMISSION has launched its Alternative Livelihood Project (ALP) on Oil Palm to
the Eastern Region with the distribution of 600,000 oil palm seedlings to
interested beneficiaries including illegal miners.
Launching the
project at Akwatiakwa near Adawso in the Eastern Region, the Deputy Minister of
Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio, noted that, the APL on oil palm
had become necessary, as it would help people living in mining communities with
trade to improve upon their economic lives independent of mining.
He emphasized that
the project is also to ensure that mining communities do not become ghost towns
even after cessation of mining.
Owusu-Bio informed
the gathering that, the ministry has been working with Agencies under it to
ensure that illegal mining is curbed in mining communities. Thus, the
implementation of oil palm plantations to redirect the energies of the young
ones engaged in the illegal mining menace; is one sure way of ensuring
sustainable livelihoods that will provide economic sustenance to members of
mining communities.
The project
targets the preparation of over 10,000 acres of oil palm plantation within the
project catchment areas in the region. “These areas cover three administrative
districts in the region including: Denkyembour, Abuakwa North and New Abirem,
where mining takes place” he indicated.
On his part, the
CEO of the Minerals Commission, Mr. Addae Antwi-Boasiako noted that the commission considered the launching of its
flagship project on oil palm in the Eastern Region as timely, as will generate employment both direct and indirect through
the establishment of agro based industries, which private investors have
already positioned themselves under government’s flagship, ‘One District One
Factory’, to use the oil palm produce as a feed stock .
He disclosed that
till date, over 2,339 beneficiaries had been registered to participate in the
programme within 25 mining communities from the three Administrative Districts
in the Eastern Region.
Board
Chairman of the Minerals Commission, S.K. Boafo in his address, urged the youth
to stop the illegal mining practice (galamsey) and
instead, register and adopt the project as a more lucrative and less hazardous
means of livelihood.
Benito in smock and S.K. Boafo ready
to plant a tree at the launch
