Anglogold Ashanti Empowers 60 Local Contractors

In a move to support local contractors operating within its operational areas to win more contracts, AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine has organized a 2-day capacity building workshop for 60 contractors in Obuasi.

The training dubbed, the Business Supply Chain Development (BSD) project is a key component of AngloGold Ashanti’s 10- year Socioeconomic development plan rolled out in collaboration with the Absa Bank Ghana and the Mineral commission.

Hailed by industry players as a game changer targeted at readying local contractors to compete favorably with their foreign counterparts, the participants were schooled on banking culture, tax compliance, digitalization – Absa payment platform, procurement processes for goods and materials, procurement processes for services and MINCOM regulations and registration processes.

According to the Community relations manager of AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine Edmond Oduro Agyei, the program feeds into the overarching goal of AngloGold Ashanti to empower local businesses to create more jobs in a bid to diversify the economy of Obuasi.

He emphasized the mining company’s commitment towards sustainability which implies making the lives of the people within their operational areas better.

“We implemented our 10-year SEDP ostensibly to diversify the local economy and make the lives of our people better” he said.

Mr. Oduro Agyei said the company taking cognizance of the impact of its 2014 care and maintenance phase on the economy of Obuasi decided to support the local economy by empowering business owners to create more jobs and reduce the over reliance on the Obuasi mine for jobs.

The decision to arrive at the various training modules were informed by the gaps detected by the company in its interaction with local contractors as key elements hampering their chances of securing contracts with the company. This, the community relations manager said AGA believes the training will help fill the gaps and boost their capacities to get more contracts.

The chairman of the Obuasi local contractors’ association Aboagye Ohene Adu commended AngloGold Ashanti for the workshop stressing that it is a demonstration of the resolve by the company to empower local businesses to be more competitive.

He said the Association has had a healthy relationship with AngloGold Ashanti over the years. He said the relationship has created a lot of opportunities for its members adding that the capacity building workshop lends credence to the unwavering commitment towards diversifying the economy of Obuasi.

“Most of our members are a bit handicapped regarding what it takes to win contracts with multinational companies like AngloGold Ashanti. What we have been taught here has opened our eyes on certain issues we were oblivious of in the past”, Mr. Ohene Adu said.

AngloGold Ashanti in September 2023 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Absa bank to support SMEs. The MoU stated that the two will be collaborating to undertake four projects to jointly assist SMEs within the Obuasi Mine’s operational area to improve their business capability and create non-direct mining jobs in Obuasi, with the goal to diversify and sustain the local economy.

There are four distinct projects under the partnership: Business Acceleration and Sustainability Project, Women in e-Commerce Project, Business Supply Chain Development Project, and the Artisans to Entrepreneurs Project.