GRi Business, Economics
& Finance 30 - 07 - 2003
Small-Scale mining producing good returns - PMMC
Rice production expected to drop next year
Govt makes gains in the economy - Osafo-Maafo
Small-Scale mining producing good returns - PMMC
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 July 2003 - The Precious Minerals Marketing Company Limited (PMMC) has since 1989 realised over 600,000 ounces of gold valued at $200m from artisanal miners.
The miners, including galamsey operators, have also made available to the company about 7.3 carats of diamonds valued at $170m since the legalisation of small-scale mining in 1989.
George Asante, Deputy Managing Director, PMMC who said this in Accra on Tuesday said artisanal mining in Ghana, popularly called galamsey, has contributed immensely to the discovery of rich deposits of minerals.
He said given the right legal and institutional framework as well as technical and financial support, artisanal mining could contribute to poverty alleviation through the encouragement of alternative economic activities for sustainable development.
Asante was speaking on the topic "Socio-economic importance of artisanal mining in Ghana" at a two-day workshop organized by the Ministry of Environment and Science on Artisanal Mining - Its Economic Importance and Effect on the Environment.
He said the socio-economic benefits would be realised if comprehensive reforms were initiated to improve the conditions of miners and to transform artisanal mining into orderly, safe, technically sound and environmentally sustainable small-scale mining.
"The realisation that artisanal mining is largely a poverty-driven economic activity demands a co-ordinated and collaborative approach, which is geared towards poverty alleviation, improving knowledge and skills as well as improving mining systems from production to marketing," Asante said.
He said a viable artisanal mining sector would stem the rural-urban drift if properly organized and managed. Prof Kasim Kasanga, Minister for Environment and Science, said government had no intention of discouraging small-scale mining. Instead it would regulate and control the sector to bring out the economic impacts.
He said it was government's policy to encourage and promote Ghanaian entrepreneurs who enter all lawful ventures with the economic potentials within the country.
Prof. Kasanga, however, cautioned the small-scale miners to ensure that their
activities did not affect the environment negatively. "If our small-scale
miners continue to carry out their mining operations in the way they are doing
it now without adopting concrete measures to address environmental issues, the
deplorable conditions they create will worsen and exacerbate the poverty
situation," he said.
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Rice production expected to drop next year
Tamale (Northern Region) 30 July 2003 - Rice production in the Northern Region is expected to drop next year as most farmers now see its cultivation as disincentive and unprofitable.
For instance, 2,474 farmers operating under the Lowland Rice Development Project (LRDP) cultivated 1,088 hectares and produced 39,570 bags of paddy rice last year but they have not been able to find market for their produce.
Emmanuel Tetteh-Bio, the Project Manager of LRDP told the GNA that 1,000 farmers within the catchment area of the project have cultivated 457 hectares of the cereal this year.
The LRDP, which is supported by the French Government, has the largest population of rice farmers and is operating in the Tamale Municipality, Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/Kumbungu, Yendi, Gushiegu/Karaga and West Gonja Districts. He said 165 farmers, who were with the project and could not pay their loans this year, had on their own, cultivated 407 hectares of rice.
Tetteh-Bio attributed the expected drop in rice production next year to the lack of market for the farmers to dispose of last year's stock to enable them to pay back their loans to qualify for credit for this year.
He explained that the early rains in May and June in the Region this year flooded the fields making it difficult for tractors to plough the farms for the farmers and thus affecting rice cultivation.
Tetteh-Bio said another difficulty facing the farmers was that rice in the area was of different varieties, which most traders did not like. He said apart from those under the LRDP, all the other farmers were adopting the broadcasting method of rice cultivation on their fields, which had resulted in the loss to the air of about 60 per cent of the fertilizers that they applied on their fields.
The Project Manager said poor management among farmers was also contributing to the low yields and explained that the LRDP was encouraging them to make water ponds on their farms to promote good yields. He announced that the LRDP has built warehouses in some selected communities for farmers to store their rice meant for credit repayment.
Some of the farmers GNA interacted with, urged the government to protect the rice industry by provide ready market for their produce. They appealed to the government to encourage Ghanaians to develop interest in the locally produce rice and to stop advertising foreign rice on the national television.
Most of them said they could not pay back their loans because middlemen who
came to buy their rice brought bigger bags, which took two of their own bags to
fill and yet they offered them unreasonable prices for their produce.
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Govt makes gains in the economy - Osafo-Maafo
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 30 July 2003 - Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, has said the government has made significant inroads in the fiscal, monetary and macroeconomic performance of economy in the first half of the year.
He said robust revenue growth surpassing target levels and moderately paced government spending relative to budgeted levels, have resulted in significant reduction of public sector domestic borrowing from 3.50 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in June 2002, to the equivalent of 1.1 percent GDP.
Osafo-Maafo announced this at the mid-year review meeting of Regional Ministers in Kumasi on Tuesday. He said total government revenue, including grants amounted to ¢7,601.3bn, exceeding the budgetary target of ¢7,045.5bn for the first half of the year and 63.5 percent higher than its level for the same period last year.
Total expenditure was 7,716.0 billion cedis below the targeted level of ¢8,249bn for the first half of 2003. Osafo-Maafo said fiscal accounts registered a domestic primary surplus of ¢213.0bn and an overall deficit of ¢114.6bn compared with projected deficit levels of ¢1,204.2bn.
He said exports of the country's major commodities such as cocoa, gold and other minerals had recorded significant increases beyond their projected levels for the half year.
The Minister said the improved external payments position in the first half of the year had resulted in significant increases in the Gross International Reserves position of the country to over 2.5 months of import cover, compared with the projected 2.3 months of import cover at the end of 2003.
Osafo-Maafo indicated that foreign inward remittances through the deposited money banks amounted to some $953.4m in the first half of the year, representing a 50 percent increase over the levels in 2001.
He, however, said while government finances improved significantly by the end of the first half of 2003, continued execution of the budget framework and the full disbursement and steady application of donor inflows would be important to achieve the zero net domestic financing targets.
Osafo-Maafo announced that the second round disbursement of the HIPC resources would be made to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in August this year.
Kwadwo Agyei-Darko, Minister of Local Government and rural Development, said the financial memoranda for Local and Urban Councils, which had been in existence since 1961 (Act 54) had been reviewed and updated. He said the new financial memoranda for MMDAs provided a general framework for the conduct of the financial business and control mechanisms for income and expenditure in all the local government units.
Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, appealed to his colleagues to evolve better mechanisms to ensure speedy implementation and completion of development projects in their respective regions.
He also appealed to them to take the issue of the environment, especially
water resources, very seriously since the survival of mankind depended on it.
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