ACEP: Check Mineral Revenue Use

The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has called for the Mineral Revenue Management Law to be implemented in a similar fashion as the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, to guide the disbursement and utilisation of revenues in the mining sector.

According to ACEP, the Mineral Revenue Management Law is crucial to guaranteeing more efficient management and use of revenues from the mining industry.

Executive Director of ACEP, Benjamin Boakye, speaking to Class Business’s Pious Kojo Backah on the sidelines of a seminar on the Campaign for Mineral Revenue Management Law in Ghana on Thursday, 26 April 2018, explained the importance of the law, saying: “Over the period that we’ve been mining, we haven’t had the framework to govern the receipts and expenditure of revenues, so, what we want to see is that we will have a structure that tells us where the money is going to, which projects are receiving the money so that the accountability process is improved.

“Today, if I ask you: ‘What do [we get] from mineral extraction?’, you wouldn’t know. Meanwhile, we’re getting over GHS1.5billion annually from extraction of gold and other minerals.

“How do we ensure that we can track these revenues that are coming in and ensure that we also account for the interest of our future generation as well, because the resources don’t just belong to those of us living today but the yet-to-be-born? Do we consume all on salaries and not think about future generations? Those are not proper governance arrangements.”

Source: ClassFMonline