Legal Practitioner and host of Joy FM's news analysis programme, Newsfile, Sampson Lardy Anyenini, has urged the Mahama administration to adopt the anti-galamsey blueprint proposed by former Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

As part of his proposed policies as a presidential candidate in the 2024 elections, Dr. Bawumia outlined a mining policy to tackle the galamsey menace and also improve safe mining.

Discussing the illegal mining menace on Newsfile on Saturday, Samson Lardy referenced Bawumia's blueprint and urged the Mahama administration to adopt it.

"I kept saying that the Mahama administration should look at Dr. Bawumia's blueprint for galamsey and some people didn't understand me," Samson Lardy said.

"They should go in there and look at what exists there, including creating the common pool of facilities to help the miners because they can't afford- the small-scale miners- so you regulate them properly."

Bawumia's mining policy

Dr. Bawumia’s plan for the mining sector, which was hailed by many as a practicable solution, emphasises, among others, environmental protection, sustainable growth, and local development.

The policy also included a value-addition mechanism to create a mining industry that drives economic growth and benefits Ghanaians.

To achieve the major thematic areas outlined above, Dr. Bawumia proposed to:

• Promote mercury-free gold catcher machines for eco-friendly mining, reforming fiscal policies to incentivise exploration, and expanding the Bank of Ghana’s Gold Purchase Programme to include small-scale miners, thus enhancing local market access.

• Create value chains for minerals like aluminium, lithium, and salt, fostering job creation in mining-adjacent industries, and reclaiming mined lands for farming.

• To boost competitiveness, Dr. Bawumia proposed to allocate affordable power to mineral-based industries and mitigate illegal mining’s impact on cocoa-growing areas.

• Strengthening local content policies, supporting small-scale miners, establishing gold refineries, and implementing traceability systems to promote transparency and regional involvement.

• Set up the minerals development bank to support small-scale miners to be able to acquire the right equipment for sustainable mining, just as the ADB Bank supports farmers.

• Finally, the former Vice President envisions critical infrastructure development, such as new railway lines, to reduce transport costs and enhance Ghana’s position in the global mining sector.

These approaches, he had explained, would make Ghana a sustainable, prosperous African mining hub.

Legal and policy analyst, Kofi Bentil who also spoke on the same programme, urged President Mahama not to underestimate the fight against galamsey, saying it requires concrete action beyond mere rhetoric. He said past efforts to curb galamsey fell short because the issue is far more complex than a mere law enforcement problem.

"Gold is a spirit, and from time immemorial, it makes men mad. If you know the stories of the Wild West, people killed and died for gold. So when you see people risking their lives to go after this, and we think that we can just treat it as a simple law enforcement issue, that’s where the problem is," he said.

Read Kofi Bentil's submission below.