President vows not to give up on fight against illegal mining
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has vowed not to give up on the fight to stop illegal mining to help safeguard the environment.
The ban on the illegal activity was in full force – had not and was not going to be lifted.
President Akufo-Addo therefore invited everybody to join the effort at protecting the vegetation, rivers and water bodies.
He said the decision by the government to disallow small scale mining was never to be permanent.
He added that it was meant to allow for the streamlining of things to restore sanity.
The recent announced permission that licensed small scale miners could go back to their job should not be construed as green light to anybody to engage in illegal mining.
President Akufo-Addo was speaking at a media encounter held at the seat of the Presidency – the Jubilee House, in Accra.
It provided the platform to tell the government’s success story and to respond to questions from journalists.
Issues he touched on included the economy, infrastructure development, health, education, energy, finance and agriculture.
President Akufo-Addo also made reference to upcoming referendum on the creation of new regions, and said it was going to be the first test for the newly appointed Chairperson and Commissioners of the election management body – the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a free, fair and transparent election.
He reminded everybody that there “cannot be any excuse for violence”.
What the people in the proposed new regions were seeking to do was to bring about equitable development.
Responding to concerns about the nation’s tilt towards China, he said his Administration was determined to use whatever opportunities “there are to lift Ghanaians out of poverty”.
At the heart of everything that they had been doing and had done was the building of a strong and resilient economy.
They would never mortgage the sovereignty of Ghana to the Asian giant – China.
President Akufo-Addo gave upbeat assessment of the economy and said the economic fundamentals were in the right place.
Inflation was down and interest rates had also eased downwards.
He underlined the unwavering resolve of the government to maintain fiscal discipline as the nation exited the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programme.
The lesson that should be learnt was that Ghana could not afford any longer any poor and inefficient management of its public finances.
He said there was everything to gain in ensuring that there was discipline in the management of public finances.
Source: GNA