One hundred and eighty nine million dollars worth of mining inputs were procured in Ghana last year, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Minerals Commission Dr. Toni Aubynn has told Starr Business.

This, according to him, was as a result of the compliance rating local content regulation.

The commission said it recorded about 79% compliance of the local content regulation last year.

The figure could have been more but for increase in the mandatory items to acquire locally from 8 to 19.

The commission said even though the regulation gives it the power to punish any mining firm that breeches the act, it would rather encourage organizations to abide by the regulation in order to benefit the Ghanaian workforce.

“…If we didn’t have the enforcement of the law this amount would have gone elsewhere to purchase items to feed our mining sector,” Dr. Toni Aubynn said.

He added that “if you look at the human resource side, we are saying that by 5 years of your operation, you should not have more than 6% of expatriate among your senior staff and we are seeing compliance to effect.”

He spoke at the inauguration of the Mining Sector Training Fund Management Committee.

The move is in line with the mining sector localization programme under the Minerals and Mining (General) Regulations, 2012 (L.I.2173).

It outlines provisions for the recruitment of expatriates, training of Ghanaians and preference for local products. The Companies are required to comply with their respective localization programme approved by the Commission.