The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, has underscored the importance of value addition to the successful and responsible exploitation of natural resources, urging African countries to follow the blueprint being implemented by Ghana.

Speaking at the Africa Prosperity Dialogues 2024 at Aburi in the Eastern Region, Mr. Jinapor gave prominence to the key role value addition can play in the economic fortunes of Africa, imploring countries to immediately institute measures that ensure that mineral resources are exploited effectively.

Touching on the theme of the conference, “Delivering Prosperity in Africa: Produce, Add Value and Trade,” the minister identified value addition and local participation as the two principles which are fundamental to delivering real value for the continent’s economies and its people.

He espoused that the pre-colonial practice of “digging and shipping” should make way for the addition of value to minerals, enhancing the revenue generation capacity of countries and ultimately culminating into economic transformation.

To encourage the other countries to chart the same path as Ghana, he outlined some policy interventions made by the government which are already bearing fruits. “We cannot transform our economies if we continue to dig and ship! That is why since assuming office in 2017, Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo has been working to ensure that we add value to our mineral resources. Today, for the first time in our country, government has established, through a public private partnership, a four hundred kilogramme (400kg) gold refinery to refine the gold we produce and we are working to secure a London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) certification,” he stated.

“The Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) and the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC), which we established in 2018 and 2019 respectively, have been working to promote and develop integrated aluminium and iron and steel industries, from exploration, through refining, to downstream production. And work is far advanced for the commencement of the construction of a US$450million manganese refinery in Ghana,” he added.

On local participation, he said the importance of citizens benefiting directly from the resources in their countries cannot be overemphasized, adding that governments owe citizens a duty to facilitate their participation in the exploitation of their resources.

He further disclosed that government is currently working on policy with Ghana Chamber of Mines that will compel large scale mining companies to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange. This is expected to create a platform for Ghanaian ownership of companies through acquisition of shares, he added.

“To derive optimal benefit from our natural resources, Africans must participate, fully, across the entire value chain of the industry. Our people must have equity in the companies involved in the exploration, production and processing of our mineral resources. It is for this reason that the government is working with the Ghana Chamber of Mines to ensure that large scale mining companies, operating in the country, list on the Ghana Stock Exchange. This will enable Ghanaians acquire shares in these companies. We have, also, enacted the Minerals and Mining (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2431) to promote local content in the mining industry,” he said.

Pursuant to this law, he added that “we have increased the items on the local procurement list of goods and services reserved for Ghanaians from 29 to 50, retaining here in our country some US$3billion annually, which would have otherwise been exported”.

The 2024 edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues series took place from Thursday January 25, 2024 to Saturday, January 28, 2024. The dialogue series is an initiative of the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) which seeks to bring Africa’s political and business leaders together in conference with other thought leaders on the continent.