Ghana gov’t urged to review investment agreements with mining firms

Stakeholders have urged the government to urgently review the investment agreement it has signed with mining companies in the country in order to favour the indigenous people in the mining communities.

They made the appeal at a day’s forum on “Conflict prevention mechanisms,” organized by the Center for African Elections Media Monitoring Index (CAEMMI), a non-profit and independent international organization, at New Abirem.

The participants were of the view that certain aspects of the mining and minerals laws in the country needed to be changed since they were not in the best interest of the people when it came to negotiations between mining companies and the affected communities.

The participants were made up of chiefs, queens, opinion leaders, Assembly members, Youth leaders, Security agencies and representatives from the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).

In a presentation, Dr Mawugbe Measan, Executive Director of CAEMMI, said the organization was committed to promoting democracy and governance in Africa by engaging elections media monitoring intelligence tools.

He said the project aimed at measuring the communal livelihood and finding out the root causes of potential conflicts to come out with ways of managing tension in extractive communities.

He revealed that apart from New Abirem and its environs where research had been carried out to identify potential conflict triggers and mechanisms to mitigate them, CEAMMI had completed similar projects in the Northern Region.

Presenting some highlights of the research findings carried out at New Abirem and other surrounding mining communities, Dr Mawugbe pointed out that the expectations of  a large number of unemployed youth  to be employed by Newmont had not been realized, saying it had the potential of creating tension in the area.

The research proved that agitations by the youth, claims of land owners that compensations paid them by Newmont for their property was inadequate and the allegations by indegenes of recruitment of migrant workers rather than the local people were all potential sources of conflict.

The research again disclosed that inadequate water supply systems, scarcity of farm lands for farming activities and the influx of migrants to seek jobs and the likelihood of conflicts between the locals and the migrants in the event of the latter going after their women due to economic challenges were all potential sources of conflict in mining communities.

Source: GNA