The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR), Samuel Abu Jinapor, has said a technical committee is finalising a policy document on the exploitation, management and utilisation of our green minerals, including lithium, for the consideration of the Cabinet.
The Minister was speaking at a ‘Natural Resources Stakeholder Dialogue’ in Accra and noted that the government is putting in place the necessary building blocks “to construct a viable, sustainable, effective, efficient and environmentally-sound natural resources sector that generates employment, and contributes meaningfully to the development of our country.
While it is the responsibility of the government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, to regulate and manage the utilisation of these resources, Mr Jinapor recognised the role of other stakeholders.
Furthermore, he noted that the management of natural resources is not just about protection and exploitation, but also more importantly about sustainability, environmental protection, mitigating the climate crisis and ensuring optimal benefit for the owners of these resources.
” Our goal is to ensure that, as much as possible, we retain the value chain of these and other minerals in our country’s future,”
“That is why under the instructions of President Akufo-Addo we have been taking several measures over the past few years to ensure the effective, efficient and sustainable management of our natural resources; and even, significantly, implementing policies aimed at retaining the value chain of these resources in-country,” he stated.
“We have ramped-up local content and local participation in the mining industry by increasing items on the Local Procurement List of goods and services reserved for Ghanaians from 29 in 2018 to 50 this year,” he disclosed.
