On Wednesday, September 27, 2023, deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, George Mireku Duker delivered a keynote address at a Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) Stakeholder Forum held at Marriot Bonvoy Hotel, Airport City, Accra, Ghana.
The forum themed, “MIIF AS A LEVER FOR GHANA’S DEVELOPMENT: TRANSPARENT, ACCOUNTABLE AND RESPONSIBLE INVESTING TO SECURE FUTURE WEALTH FOR GHANAIANS”, brought together stakeholders from the Chamber of Mines, Academia, Civil Society Organizations, Investment Community and others.
In his address, he touted the vision of the President behind the fund’s establishment as the foundation Board Chairperson, where, together with my team, he steered the affairs of MIIF to the more remarkable feat it is achieving today.
The deputy minister called on MIIF to provide a framework where Ghana and its Businessmen will hold significant ownership stakes in future Mines in the country.
Another aspect where citizens can benefit is through effective local content and participation, which is currently the best in the country through the L. I. 2431.
He called on MIIF to support local firms to develop manufacturing capabilities that can feed the mine with the necessary supplies rather than importing, which leads to the state losing a lot of revenue.
He further tasked MIIF and Minerals Commission to immediately develop a framework with the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) to design and beef up existing curricula on extraction, processing and entire governance of the various critical minerals identified towards the energy transition and provide scholarships to technical staff and some students towards that study.
The intention is to build regulatory capacity and local graduates to match the sophisticated interests of companies that will exploit these minerals in the future.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Kwabena Nyarko Abronoma
