The chief executive of Telecel Ghana, Ing. Patricia Obo-Nai has challenged Ghana’s mining industry to rethink how it develops talent, emphasising that the extractive sector’s ability to benefit from artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies will ultimately depend on how quickly its people acquire new capabilities.

“Technology has never transformed an organisation on its own. It is people who transform organisations using technology,” she said. “Rather than hiring people simply for today's vacancies, organisations must recruit for adaptability, curiosity and learning agility.”

Delivering the keynote address as Special Guest of Honour at the 7th Biennial Human Resource Conference of the Ghana Chamber of Mines on the theme: “Future-Ready People: Building the Workforce for Ghana’s Next Era of Mining, Ing. Obo-Nai identified three priorities for building a workforce fit for the future: training for agile capabilities, making continuous learning part of everyday work and using diversity to strengthen innovation.

The conference, held at The Palms by Eagles in Accra, brings together mining industry leaders, human resource professionals and other stakeholders to examine how the sector can build the skills and leadership needed for its next phase of growth.

Drawing from the telecommunications industry, where technology and customer expectations have changed rapidly over the past decade, Ing. Obo-Nai said organisations that succeed in a changing environment will be those that learn faster than change itself.

She said employees need continuous opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills and learning should be embedded in everyday work. For the mining industry, she said, this means preparing people before their skills become outdated rather than waiting for technological change to expose capability gaps.

“We can no longer afford to wait until employees become digitally obsolete before investing in their development. When automation changes operational processes, employees cannot simply attend a workshop once every year. They require continuous access to new knowledge, which means organisations must rethink about learning and development differently.”

Ing. Obo-Nai also urged mining companies to strengthen efforts to attract and retain women in engineering, technology and other technical fields. She said organisations lose valuable ideas and perspectives when talented women are unable to see a clear path into technical careers or do not see themselves represented in those industries.

She pointed to Telecel’s Female Engineering Students Scholarship Programme, which supports female engineering students with financial assistance, laptops, data, mentorship and internship opportunities, and the company’s DigiTech Academy, which introduces young people to practical STEM skills including robotics, web design and app development.

Opening the conference, Ghana Chamber of Mines CEO Ing. Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey set the tone by arguing that Ghana’s mining industry has significant human potential and capacity but must become more deliberate about developing the capabilities needed for the future.

He also called for a stronger exchange between academia and industry, allowing research, knowledge and talent to move more freely between the two sectors. He described the workplace of the future as one where people have the psychological space to experiment, learn and innovate, arguing that the “mine of the future must be a classroom.”

As Ghana’s mining industry prepares for a more technology-intensive future, the Chamber of Mines’ 7th Biennial Human Resource Conference is placing HR firmly at the centre of that transition as a strategic force responsible for building the capabilities that will determine the sector’s competitiveness.