Dollar Power: The Ghanaian mining town whose name is a sad irony of its development

The first time the name is mentioned, or read, what naturally comes to the mind is that, perhaps, this community, located on the borders of Ghana, could have some unique linkage to the popular American currency.

Maybe that is what it was meant to exemplify, but GhanaWeb knows that not many good things can be alluded to the community today.

By way of development, Dollar Power, which is a mining and farming community in the Bole District of the Savannah Region, has been without access roads, security posts, and telecommunications networks for a decade, a situation the residents say has exposed them to armed men from neighbouring Ivory Coast.

Established in 2005, Dollar Power has become one of the popular illegal mining sites in the country, a report by asaaseradio.com.

The report, dated April 16, 2023, added that the community has contributed to the destruction of natural resources, as well as the removal of temporary boundary pillars at the border lines between Ghana and Ivory Coast.

In an earlier GhanaWeb report sourced from nkilgifmonline.com, Mahama Tahiru, the Secretary of the Dollar Power Community, said the community, also known as Sindi, has been in existence for a very long time just like any other community in Ghana but lost its inhabitants through invasion by Samori Toure, a noted slave raider from 1895 to 1897, and so the land was left for farming by Ivorian farmers and herdsmen.

He said the community, was however rejuvenated by Mohammed Seidu, aka Dollar Power and a team after realizing that Ivorians are mining gold on the land and as such, was being controlled by Ivorian rebels around the year 2013.

The Secretary of the Community said Mohammed Seidu, aka Dollar Power, who is a businessman, and his team, realised that the land is in Ghana and belongs to Gonjas and so he stopped the rebels at Cote d’Ivoire from coming there to mine.

Though it was not easy since there were always scuffles between the rebels and the team Mohammed Seidu (Dollar Power), since they made a fortune there, but the Ghanaians ultimately succeeded in driving them out of the land.

Tahiru Mahama said in the course of time, whenever the illegal miners were sneaking to the Ghana land, they would say they were going to ‘Dollar Power’ since he was in charge of the affairs of the area, hence the name ‘Dollar power community’.

According to Mahama Tahiru, Mohammed Seidu aka Dollar Power later hinted the late Paramount Chief of the Bole Traditional Area, Bolewura Awuladese Pontonprom (I), about the rich and abandoned land and the Bolewura subsequently enskinned the current chief, Mahama Awudu Abott, to take charge of the affairs of the land with a current population of about 8000 inhabitants.

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