Charles Owusu has complimented government for securing a 10 percent royalties on the country's minerals, particularly in the deal concerning the mining of lithium.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor has assured the nation that the deal between government and Barari DV Ltd, a subsidiary of Atlantic Lithium Ltd, to mine Ghana's lithium has significant advantages revealing that the execution of the contract will give Ghana 10% of royalties which, to him, is one of the highest in the country’s mineral exploration history.
“This lease differs from all previous mining leases in many respects. It is the first time in the history of our country that we have successfully negotiated for 10 per cent royalties for any mineral, which is one of the highest for exploitation of any mineral across the globe,” he said at Meet-the-Press series organised by the Ministry of Information.
He also emphasized that the government has secured a 19 percent State participation in the mining company.
"We have already secured 19 percent state participation in this mining company with the requirement to scale it up to a minimum of Ghanaian participation through listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange for shares to be made available to Ghanaians and Ghanaian entities," the Minister expounded.
Touching on the deal during Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, Charles Owusu expressed delight over the involvement of the State in the mining of lithium at Ewoyaa in the Central Region and the royalties Ghana will accrue from this deal.
However, he charged the Ministry to prioritize Ghanaian-owned companies in the mining of minerals in the country, stressing should local businesses be granted licence, "it will not only be 10% that will come to Ghana but 90 percent".
He condemned the culture where Ghanaian-owned companies will have to go through lots of challenges to acquire necessary documents to exploit the natural resources unlike foreign companies which are given much privilege and latitude to operate.
"It is time to allow Ghanaians to participate in everything the nation has and if there is something of value in it that can benefit the nation, we will reap the benefits," Charles Owusu appealed to the sector Minister.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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I agree with all of you to some extent. But @Gena, you must understand that dependant countries are mostly the only ones in need of foreign intervention for some of these businesses, so it's not enough for the minister to compare with other countries. In this day that we are in, we must deal with each issue as though it's an isolated one. It's even more crucial due to the challenges that we are facing as a country, such should be seen as an opportunity for us to think outside the box. And to successfully do that, Noe of the previous things we have qualified to be a yardstick. Government itself should discontinue comparing themselves with previous governments or even with their own achievements in the past, because all of those cumulatively are a failure, let's be honest with ourselves. People must really have a genuine interest to take the nation to a new dimension and we'll sure have fruitful solutions to these issues. The Chinese didn't have control over their issues in just a few decades ago, they intentionally planned it out. They sponsored their students to go and learn technologies and they had a plan how they were going to draw on those to build their own. For us, people have to pay several tens of thousands to some cooks to get government scholarships, so why would they return home after their studies? And even if they returned, where will they work? So how will we get the local solutions to the problems?
my brothers kindly calm down and lets look at the points the minister raised and facts we also have and then we can challenged him. the minister says 10% is the best around the world, is it true. we can find out abi. he also says nothing raw will go out, is it also true. when did we become self endowed with our own companies etc to do things for ourselves?. in this case the minister says the company did everything so it their right to be given the slot. unless he is lying we can take him on. strangely ourselves acting as locals will rather go and front or hire the same foreigners to come and mine for us. did we go or come.
How can anyone commend this agreement? We use past negotiations (which we all recognise as total ripp off) to be the standards for current and future negotiations? This is completely ridiculous, the ministry has only upgraded the past failures a little bit. But we urgently need to depart from that trajectory completely, it appears none of the people in government is capable of leading such a crusade. It takes truly incorruptible, bold, patriotic, clever, selfless, and visionary individuals to lead such a departure from the mediocrity. See how the western nations are currently toughening their laws to protect the interest of their nationals to the detriment of foreigners. Here, we are not only in the old fashion of doing the opposite, our governments are making it more difficult for indigens and safeguarding the interests of dubious foreign businesses and individuals. The bin is even too wholesome for such "leaders"
Why cant we mine it ourselves and process it ourselves? Why do we give all mining to foreigners. is it that we dont have mining expertise. How difficult is mining that local Ghanaian company cant do it?