Ex-PMMC Boss Questions GoldBod Decision

Nana Akwasi Awuah

 

The decision by the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration to cancel the licences of mining companies in the country has caught fire.

It follows the widespread condemnation of the seeming wholesale decision.

Latest to add his voice to the issue is the immediate past Managing Director of the then state-run Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), which has now been changed to the GoldBod, Nana Akwasi Awuah.

In a statement, Mr. Awuah who is a lawyer by profession, acknowledged what he called sweeping changes being made to the downstream sector of the country’s gold industry.

He, however, noted that, “while these changes may generally be well-intended in tandem with the objectives of the new Gold Board Act, I am afraid some of them have the potential to significantly hurt the industry and its players.”

“It is worthy to note that the small scale sector or ASM gold as some would like to call it, contributes about 40% of the overall gold output in Ghana,” he observed.

For him, “that is a very significant contribution which makes it compelling to handle that sector with great tact and sensitivity.”

That, he said was because “the downstream sector of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) employs millions of Ghanaians with various players of different capacities along the value chain.”

He insisted that, “the wholesale cancellation of licences, as captured in the said press release, appears insensitive to the many people who paid for and were issued with licences under the previous law.”

Mr. Awuah said he was expecting some transitional provisions or administrative measures to regularise existing licence holders in order to save jobs and livelihoods of Ghanaians, but rather there was no such thing.

He, therefore, expressed fear over the many job losses and the effect the new law will have on Ghanaians and the economy in the coming days.

That notwithstanding, the former PMMC boss, extended his best wishes to, “the new GoldBod and humbly encourage it to execute its mandate in a way that promotes the industry to ensure that it thrives and continues to maintain its significant contributions to our dear nation.”

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

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