The Ghana Chamber of Mines CEO, Kenneth Ashigbey, says imported excavators for large-scale mining firms are subjected to rigorous tracking and clearance procedures at the ports to ensure accountability and curb misuse.

Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story, Ing Ashigbey explained that clearing such heavy equipment requires multiple levels of approval.

"Currently, the system that has been put at the port, you would have to go through the committee. Even for us — the large-scale miners — our members had to bring in work equipment that they had imported into the system, and it had to go through from the Ministry of Lands to the Ministry of Transport.

• Read also: Ghana is the highest importer of excavators in West Africa, 2nd in Africa – JoyNews Research

"The GRA Commissioner-General had to also endorse before you are allowed to clear this large-scale equipment,” he said on Wednesday, September 10.

He added that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) is also present at the port, working alongside the Minerals Commission to track excavators.

According to Mr Ashigbey, excavators used in large-scale mining are much bigger than those often deployed in illegal small-scale mining, also known as galamsey.

• Read also: We’re not clearing, we’re only decongesting Tema Port – Transport Minister on imported excavators

“The large-scale mining excavators are not the size of excavators that are used in destroying our lands,” he noted.

The Chamber of Mines CEO further argued for greater transparency, urging authorities to make public the list of all individuals and entities importing excavators into the country.

“We should be able to publish the names of all the people who are importing all of these excavators into this country. There are some of them [for whom] the only reason they are bringing these excavators in — especially the small excavators — is because of the galamsey,” he said.

His comments come on the back of a JoyNews Research analysis of trade data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), which puts Ghana as the highest importer of excavators in West Africa, outspending Nigeria by more than double.

According to the data, Ghana spent $205 million on excavator imports in 2023, while Nigeria, with a much larger economy and landmass, spent only $94 million.

On the continental scale, Ghana ranked second, trailing only South Africa, which imported excavators worth $436 million within the same period.

JoyNews sources have further uncovered evidence of a surge in excavator clearance at the Tema Port, much of it occurring in the night.