The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker, has charged the Staff and Management of the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) to make their impact felt in Ghana, especially in the various mining communities across the country.
He said it is important Ghanaians benefit from the inflows of revenue from the Minerals Development Fund especially what is detailed to the fund from the Minerals Income Investment Fund.
He stressed that it is very important they decentralise the inflows of the revenue for mining communities to be developed, especially those in Tarkwa as the town hosts about 60% of Ghana’s Gold threshold.
“With all this Gold, our people would want to see tangible projects that in the future we can say we got them out of the Gold proceeds. And if the indigenes of our country, especially those from the mining communities are going to be proud of something that we can show, much will depend on MDF”.
The Deputy Minister said this when he paid a working visit to the Minerals Development Fund office to on behalf of the Sector Minister, Samuel Abu-Jinapor, familiarise himself with Staff and Management and also to ascertain their level of operations in the new year.
He said the onus lies with everyone to ensure the implementation of various projects in mining communities in the districts as the MDF was established purposely to develop these Mining communities.
“It is your duty to supervise tangible projects for Ghanaians to witness and for Ghanaians to benefit”.
Mr. Duker commended the Staff and Management of the Minerals Development Fund for their work. He also called on other agencies under the mining sector to work together and equally contribute to developing mining communities as they all derive their revenue from the Minerals Income Investment Fund.
”It is important for you to find a way of tracking and monitoring whether or not the money given is used for the intended purpose and also track the projects embarked on in the various districts”.
Administrator for the Minerals Development Fund (MDF) Dr. Norris Hammah who welcomed the Deputy Minister gave a detailed presentation on their mandate and work plan for the year (2022), while assuring him that all the policy directives given will be followed through.
In his presentation, Dr. Hammah spoke of some projects that the Fund had undertaken in various districts. Among them are; Construction of a Community Centre at Tamso- Tarkwa, a 3 Unit Classroom Block with office and ICT Centre at Ellembelle Chip Compound in Wassa, and 12 Seater water closet toilets at Wamase Akrofuom.
The Administrator also disclosed that the MDF has provided direct funding for the construction of ten (10) Infrastructure projects on the campuses of the University of Ghana, Legon and University of Mines and Technology (UMaT).
