Newmont Gold resettles 2,400 people

Sunyani (B/A), Dec. 18, GNA 96 Mr Steven Baffoe, Principal Communication Officer of Newmont Gold Ghana Limited (NGGL), on Monday stated that the company under its Ahafo resettlement programme has constructed 400 houses to accommodate 2,400 people at the cost of 14 million dollars.

The resettlement camp is in Ntotrotroso and Kenyasi No.2. He added that a compensation package of 16 million dollars have also been paid to some 3,000 farmers whose farmlands fell within the mine take area.

Mr Baffoe said this as part of a periodic field tour organized by the company for Journalist to update them on the company's operations. He expressed worry about the attitude of some indigenes who possessed 91speculative farms' trooping to it's premises to demand for compensation, adding that payment of compensation was only due for farmers who qualified under their criterion.

The company, he stated, has instituted a number of community development programmes to help people out of their vulnerable situations, get children of school going-age back into the classroom, tease them out of focusing only on mining jobs and venture into large-scale agriculture.

The programme includes the Vulnerable, Agriculture Improvement and Land Access programmes, Ahafo Agro-Business Initiative and the Livelihood Enhancement and Community Empowerment Programme and Gender Mainstreaming.