President of Gabon, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, has commended Ghana's ongoing mining sector reforms, describing them as an important step towards improving transparency, strengthening governance and ensuring greater value addition to the country's natural resources.

Speaking during the second day of his state visit to Ghana, President Nguema said the reforms position Ghana as an example for other African countries seeking to derive greater economic benefits from their mineral resources.

"I congratulate you on the reform in the mining sector, which seeks to bring transparency, improve governance, and improve value addition to national resources," he said.

The Gabonese leader also highlighted the importance of local processing of natural resources, noting that both Ghana and Gabon are pursuing policies aimed at moving beyond the export of raw materials.

"Ghana is into cocoa processing, as we are also doing in Gabon, and we are also looking to locally transform our manganese," President Nguema stated.

He said increasing local value addition would help African countries generate more wealth, create jobs and accelerate industrialisation.

"I think that this is a very important vision, because transforming in us gives us more wealth, creates value, and gives employment opportunities to our youth, who are looking up to us," he added.

President Nguema's remarks come as Ghana advances major reforms to its mining laws. Cabinet recently approved sweeping amendments to the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, including a proposal to cap the maximum duration of mining leases at 20 years.

The proposed legislation also seeks to replace the current reconnaissance and prospecting licences with a single Exploration Licence valid for a maximum of five years, as part of broader efforts to strengthen regulation and improve governance in the extractive sector.

The comments formed part of bilateral engagements between President Nguema and President John Dramani Mahama during the Gabonese leader's official visit, which is focused on deepening cooperation in trade, investment, natural resource management and regional development.