Economist and professor at the University of Ghana, Godfred Bokpin, has expressed deep frustration over what he describes as the failure of the current leadership to meet the expectations of Ghanaians in the fight against illegal mining.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, Prof Bokpin criticised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) leadership for not taking decisive action to curb illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey, and for failing to drive initiatives that could strengthen the economy.
“I take a different view of the fact that if we continue on this path simply because some four million people are engaged in that sector (mining), and we are gaining foreign exchange is cheap. For me, this is not the kind of leadership we voted for,” he said.
He argued that mining is underperforming compared to other sectors of the economy and failing to deliver its full potential to national revenue.
“If you put all the sectors of the economy together and look at sectoral analysis and their contributions to revenue generation, you will come to oil and gas, which is contributing around 22.3% to the total revenue. Then you come to mining, which is delivering close to 12%, which is very low,” Prof. Bokpin explained.
He stressed that this was far from what Ghanaians expected before giving the NDC leadership the mandate, warning that the environmental destruction caused by galamsey demands urgent and bold interventions.
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