Chinese Miners Build 100 School Blocks – For Ghana

PRIMARY EDUCATION in the country will receive a massive boost within the next two years as Chinese nationals doing business in the country, especially in the mining sector, have promised to build 100 school blocks at the cost of $1 billion, across the country.

The massive school project, which will be undertaken across the length and breadth of the country, is the Chinese nationals’ widow’s mite to help develop Ghana faster, notably the education sector.

The Ghana China Business Chamber of Commerce (GCBCC,) Ghana China Mining Association (GCMA,) Sany Company Limited and Hansol Mining Company Limited are the four groups that would collaborate to build the 100 school blocks.

The President of GCBCC, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako in an interview with DAILY GUIDE stated that Chinese invasion to Ghana was a blessing to the country and not a curse as was being speculated by some people.

He disclosed that the Chinese nationals invested a total of $1 billion in the mining sector and others areas in the country last year, noting the 100 school blocks was the Chinese nationals’ corporate social responsibility to the country.

Speaking with the paper after the commissioning of a brand new pickup vehicle and excavators imported from China, Mr. Antwi-Boasiako said the Chinese believed that developing the human resource was the right way for Ghana to develop, hence their decision to build the schools blocks.

Explaining his conviction that Chinese invasion to Ghana was blessing to the country, he said Ghana accrued $10.8 billion annually from the small scale mining which the Chinese nationals in partnership Ghanaians undertook.

He stated that no Chinese national owned a mining concession in the country, stressing that these Chinese nationals had been partnering their Ghanaian counterparts who owned the concession sites to do small scale mining.

He said Ghanaians that had the concession sites sadly did not have the expertise and huge monies needed to start mining, hence the vital intervention of these Chinese nationals.

Mr. Anwti-Boasiako noted that the Chinese people were experts in mining so he entreated Ghanaians, notably those involved in small scale mining, to take advantage of their presence in the country by tapping some of their knowledge.

He observed that these Chinese nationals would not stay in Ghana forever therefore the people should learn how to mine so that when Chinese leave they could continue mining on their own.

Mr. Antwi-Boasiako urged government to regularize the small scale mining laws so that Chinese nationals operating in the country would not encounter problems when they want to partner with Ghanaians to mine.

He announced that the Ghana China Mining Association had been formed to ensure that Chinese miners in the country did their business in a manner that would not destroy the environment, adding plans were underway by his group to refill all pits in mining areas to avert accidents and deaths.

The commissioning of the pickup vehicles and excavators was the brainchild of the GCBCC and Sany Company Limited. The cars which would be sold at garages at Dakwadwom in Kumasi and Dowrwulu in Accra, are efficient and cheaper.