Editorial: We Applaud Engineers And Planners (E&P)

Engineers and Planners (E&P), Ghana’s leading indigenous engineering and mining services company, according to a story we carried yesterday, has secured a landmark US$100 million investment facility from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) to acquire and develop the Black Volta Gold Project in the Upper West Region.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Sir Samuel Esson Jonah, renowned Ghanaian business icon and former CEO of Ashanti Goldfields Company described the agreement as a “watershed moment in Ghana’s mining history.

“This is the first large-scale, indigenous-owned gold mining project in the country. Today is not just about signing a document. It’s about repositioning Ghana from the periphery to the centre of the mining value chain,” Sir Jonah said.

He praised Ibrahim Mahama, founder and CEO of Engineers and Planners as a symbol of vision, resilience and indigenous ambition. “Back in 1998, when Ibrahim Mahama came to me, focused on alluvial mining, I advised him to pursue hard rock mining instead. Today, he stands tall, leading a project that could redefine Ghanaian participation in the global gold economy.”

Sir Sam Jonah emphasised that the acquisition was purely merit-based, with no political or personal influences, noting that the deal dates back to 2023. Under the terms of the facility, the US$100 million will be disbursed in two tranches. The first US$50 million, originally due in June 2024 is now subject to a 4% penalty due to delayed disbursement.

The second tranche is expected by June 30, 2026. The funds will enable E&P to acquire full ownership of the Black Volta Gold Project and support mine development. Sir Jonah reiterated the commercial and strategic nature of the transaction, “This is not a favour. This is not crony capitalism. This is a purely commercial transaction built on strong fundamentals and a bold vision for indigenous ownership.”

He also called on the government to craft policies that enable more local mining companies to reach the stature of Engineers and Planners. The Chronicle congratulates Engineers and Planners (E&P) for the bold steps it has taken to acquire the mine that was formerly known as the Azuma Project.

Despite Ghana being one of the leading gold producing countries in the world, most of our mines are owned by foreigners or foreign based companies. They come here to dig for the precious minerals and export them in their raw state. In most of the cases, only a small portion of the proceeds from these exports are sent back to Ghana. This is one of the reasons why Ghana is still poor, because the country is not deriving maximum profits from its mineral wealth.

Meanwhile, if these mining companies were Ghanaian owned, proceeds from the sale of the gold would have been sent back to the country top shore-up our foreign currency reserves. Until recently, almost all the consumables items on our local market had hit the roof top due to the scarcity of the US dollar.

Yes, we were producing gold, diamond, bauxite, manganese among others, which were being exported in droves to foreign markets, yet we were struggling to get to the US dollar to import essential items. In a nutshell, Ghana is sitting on massive wealth yet her people are extremely poor because of our failure to support local companies to venture into areas dominated by the foreigners.

This is the reason why we are applauding Engineers and Planners for venturing into our gold mining industry. Already, another Ghanaian company has taken over the Ghana Bauxite Company at Awaso in the Western North Region. These are all good signs that the country has bright future provided politics will not be used to thwart the efforts being made by these indigenous companies and those that are yet to be formed.

Looking at the mineral resources of this country, she should not be going round the world with cup in hand begging for cramps from the advanced countries.  Most of the European counties do not have even half of the natural resources available to us, yet they are well developed because of proper planning and conscious efforts made by their governments to grow local companies to bring in more businesses.

Though we concede that Ghana is a largely a poor country, there are still wealthy people who could have raised the resources to invest in the various sectors of our national economy, but they are not doing so because of the vindictive nature of our politics. We need to accept the fact that it is only the private sector that can turn round the fortunes of this country. We hope and pray that other companies will follow the shining example of Mr Ibrahim Mahama, owner and CEO of Engineers and Planners in the interest of mother Ghana.

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