‘Innovate to transform mineral resources for optimal dev’
INDUSTRY players, including businesses, researchers, policymakers, and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), have been urged to adopt innovative approaches to transform Ghana’s mineral resources for optimal development.
The call was made at the 2024 West African Annual Industry Conference (WAIC) held in Accra.
It was on the theme: ‘Transforming West Africa’s natural resources through advancing technologies, innovation, automation and sustainable resources development.’
Dr Peter Kofi Amponsah-Mensah, Managing Director, Pamicor Ghana Limited, said the time had come for deepened multistakeholder collaboration and the adoption of digital technologies to address challenges in the sector.
Delivering a speech at the event, he said, “Our industry is in a state of flux; illegal mining (galamsey) has shown the cracks in our policy space and the weakness of our structures,” calling for collaborative measures to tackle it.
“We will have to innovate constructive ways to train the local entrepreneurs rise to the good dictates of the law in other to get a formidable Ghanaian mining house,” Dr Amponsah-Mensah said.
He called for a review in the formulation and structure in policy, incorporating security and economic intelligence in decision making on the country’s mining, water and mineral assets utilisation and disposition.
“We should intentionally develop strategies that do not only correct but have forward-thinking strategies that tend to make us leaders in our endeavours,” Dr Amponsah-Mensah said.
Doing so, he said should go together with checks and balances to ensure the responsible management of the resources to the benefit of Ghanaians and the economy at large.
Mr Lawrence Omari-Mensah, Executive Secretary and Chief Execitive Officer (CEO), WAIC, said the conference was one of the ways of ensuring that the oil and gas industry was always updated with trends, while enhancing skills of players.
Through stakeholder contributions, the conference put together issues to influence policy decisions, noting that the conference has led to the enactment of a sustainability and mining code for mineral resources, to promote the sector.
He urged industry players to embrace digital innovations in the sector, including capitalising on Artificial Intelligence (AI), to enhance their operations and efficiency, and professional standards.
“Our training and mentorship processes must be intentional to produce competent managers to lead us into the the future. It is only then can we protect what we have been given to manage,” Mr Omari-Mensah, said.
Credit: GNA
