The Minerals Income and Investment Fund (MIIF) has launched a scholarship scheme aimed at educating 1000- women from mining communities in the country.

The scholarship which will be hosted by the George Grant University of Mines and Technology in Tarkwa (UMAT), is exclusively for women from mining communities studying in mining engineering and STEM related mining courses.

Dubbed the MIIF- WomCom scholarship, the scheme will run for 10 years with a projected 100 award beneficiaries every year.The goal of the MIIF- WomCom scholarship programme is to increase female participation in the management of the mining sub-sector which is below 8%. This initiative is in line with the Fund’s ESG policy. 

Critical Intervention

The Chief Executive Officer of MIIF, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, says his outfit took the decision to make the critical intervention to support the development of human capital in the mining sector as it considers that to be the most important investment across the mining value delivery chain.

He emphasised that, for Ghana to benefit and leverage on its mineral resources, good policies will not be enough until there is deliberate development of the human resource to support the sector.

“We believe that just investing in equity, investing in the value chain etc. without investing in human development will really just take us nowhere; you know, we will hit a wall at a point in time,” Mr. Koranteng stated.

While human resource development is the key goal driving the establishment of the scholarship scheme, the specific concentration on women from needy families in the mining communities is of prime focus to MIIF. Apart from the fact that this initiative bridges the gap in this male dominated industry, it provides an opportunity to create female role models from these communities and erodes perceptual biases borne out of certain traditions and prejudices against women. 

Research and ESG

The Evironment, Social and Governance framework that underpins every decision of MIIF is also fed by extensive research in the mining sub-sector that identified more value with women participation in the mining.

The Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations, Kojo Frempong said, “The research is pretty conclusive, the more you invest in women in the sector, the more value is created for the sector as there is greater retention in the communities”.

For us at MIIF, this WomCom scholarship scheme is a strategic investment that will inure to the benefit of the country as a whole and create more advocates for environmental, social and governance issues” said the Head of ESG at MIIF, Ms Sharon Addo.

Ghana is blessed with natural resources, but we have seen the dangers in other jurisdictions when there is policy failure and a lack of investment in the mining value delivery process.

Mr Koranteng stressed that, resources are not infinite making it crucial to leverage the resources cleverly in a sustainable manner, this gives meaning to the fact that, resources do not develop a nation, brains do.

Scholarship Expansion

Though UMaT is the first university to administer the scholarship, MIIF plans to extend the opportunity to students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani in an expandable drive for the scholarship.

“We are modeling the WomCom scholarship scheme with UMaT. 100 female students will be selected every year. Some of the beneficiaries will be undergraduate while others will be involved in the postgraduate category. We have great expectations of the various cohorts for the next ten years. Once we see the success of the program we will replicate it in the other universities, I am deeply inspired by the saying of the great Ghanaian educationist, Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey who said; if you educate a woman, you educate a nation. Imagine the impact hundreds of qualified women engineers will have on the mining sub-sector only a few years after this program takes off”, Mr. Korateng added.

Framework Agreement with UMaT

The Women in Mining Communities Scholarship scheme (WomCom Scholarship) is part of a five-part collaboration framework between MIIF and UMaT. The other four areas of collaboration are; an annual thought leadership event dubbed the MIIF Speaker Series which is in its third year, The MIIF Technical Training and Jewellery Training Making Centre which will be completed in December 2024, a continuous training and technical assistance from UMaT to MIIF under which the University provides consultancy to MIIF and the proposed Ghana Mining Museum and Mining Research Center which is also supported by the Chamber of Mines and will be partly funded by MIIF.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adams has described the collaborative agreement between MIIF and UMaT as the foundational stone which clearly makes the partnership between academia and practicing institutions possible.

“The structural relationship is firmly anchored on collaboration. MIIF is guided by the research from UmaT while the university also gets support from the Fund. An important area that bears out this collaboration is in the Small-Scale Mining Incubation Program (SSMIP) where MIIF intends to help formalise some small-scale mining firms by investing capital, installing a rigorous financial reporting and environmental compliance regime as well as an off-taker agreement for gold produced under the programme".

Support of the Chamber of Mines

The Chamber of Mines has expressed its support for MIIF’s initiatives.

Dr Sulemanu Koney, the CEO of the Chamber indicated that the MIIF / UMAT Collaboration and the scholarship scheme exemplifies what is possible for the sector if things are done well.

A number of mining companies such as Atlantic Lithium which has discovered lithium in Ewoyaa and set to start production in 2025 have indicated their readiness to support the scholarship scheme when it takes off in October 2024.