Underscoring the importance of mining to the Ghanaian economy, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) former National Chairman, Freddie Blay has observed that the mining industry employs a lot more workers than the government recruits in the public sector.
He said the fight against illegal mining had been complicated by the significant level at which the government was dependent on earnings from gold mining.
Speaking to GHOne TV‘s Lily Mohammed on Hard Talk, Mr. Blay said the issue of illegal mining was not just exclusive to Ghana but in other countries where there are huge deposits of gold.
“Galamsey was a policy against the reality of the day. And let me be honest with you: The reality of this country is that over 40% of our economy depends on gold at this point in time. The mining industry, I’m talking about galamsey and even deep-shaft mining and all the others, employ and also the galamseyers, five million people in Ghana. The public service put together does not employ more than two and half million people.
“It means a greater percentage of people eking for a living depend on it in this country. Gold itself is all over. If you want it sometimes, it involves messing up with the environment. Argentina is dealing with it, El Salvador is dealing with it. Many other countries including South Africa.
“Unfortunately, maybe it is a cursed resource that we have inherited,” the party chair averred.
In the lead-up to last year’s general election, the issue of illegal mining was front and centre in the political discourse. Civil society organisations and labour groups heaped pressure on the Akufo-Addo government over its failure to deal head-on with the menace that had ravaged the nation’s water bodies, resulting in the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) decision in late August to ration water supply in certain parts of the Central Region.
Following engagements with government, Organised Labour suspended its strike after the presidency announced a bolstered plan to tackle illegal mining.
Mr. Blay noted that as long as galamsey remained a livelihood issue, it would be difficult to root it out completely.
