Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative GHEITI), Dr Steve Manteaw, has expressed his dissatisfaction regarding the absence of monetary value on mineral resources in Ghana.
The natural resources expert voiced his concerns during Day 2 of the Constitution Review Committee’s deliberation which focused on Lands and Natural Resources. He noted that Ghana has enriched a number of external mining companies with very little in return. “If you attach monetary value to the resource which belongs to you, then that monetary value becomes your equity in the transaction.” he explained.
Speaking on the constitutional provisions made by the state for mineral exploitation in Ghana he said, “The current arrangement we have is that the investor brings his capital mines and pays royalty and by the way the royalty is mostly recoverable so in actual fact he is giving you nothing. He is just giving you money that he will take back later…; and then he pays corporate income tax and other levies.”
According to Dr. Manteaw, Ghana is left with ‘carried interests’ per the Minerals Act, which he described as the bare minimum, given Ghana’s major input in the acquisition of the minerals.
He noted that returns from Ghana’s rich mineral environment if invested in the right places could have established a fund to keep the sector running. However, the immediate consumption of the income revenue leaves Ghana with less than minimal to drive development and create investments that will optimize Ghana’s natural resources sector. “Having mined gold for over 100 years, this country should have had a volt from which it will take money, hire people to come and mine for the state and pay them and go away; but we produced gold for over 100 years and became a highly indebted poor country. Who mines gold and becomes poor?.”
