Accra, Nov. 19,- The Ghana
Chamber of Mines and the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) have signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance and strengthen technical
cooperation in the fields of standardisation, metrology and conformity
assessment.
The MoU also aims to improve the
exchange of information and expertise between the two organisations in order to
promote standards in the mining industry, public and industrial welfare, health
and safety.
Mr Sulemanu Koney, the Chief
Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and Professor Alex Dodoo,
Acting Director-General Ghana Standards Authority, signed the MoU on behalf of
their respective institutions.
Commenting on the agreement,
Professor Dodoo said the GSA is of the view that a well-controlled and
regularised and standardised mining sector could actually lead to increase
productivity and job creation.
“So this MoU is to cement the
relationship and to announce to the country that GSA and Ghana Chamber of Mines
are putting extremely high premium on the mining sector. We want the mining
sector to yield revenue much more than it is doing and to be a sector which
creates jobs and a sector which is world class,” he said.
Prof Dodoo said the GSA stood
ready to facilitate the work of the Chamber of Mines by providing the industry
with the necessary standards in line with best global practices.
“The mining sector is big
business. We know that business thrives in an atmosphere of trust. And the
whole point of standardisation is to build trust. If you are buying precious
minerals, especially gold you want to ensure that you get your monies worth,”
he said.
To the international community
this is going to serve notice that Ghana is opened for higher level of business
in the gold industry. We are happy to say that we’ve already started the
process of beginning to hallmark precious minerals so as you buy them you know
that these have been certified by GSA and that adds huge value,” Pro. Dodoo
added.
On his part, Mr Koney said the
Chamber of Mines was committed to creating value for the country and one of the
areas to do this was to work with other partners to deepen the integration of
the mining industry into the wider economy.
He said the more value the
country was able to retain would depend on the linkage between the mining
industry and the rest of the economy, adding that the many opportunities within
the mining value chain could be harnessed only if the requisite standards are
in place.
“To promote local content
naturally we want to ensure that the standards of there inputs which go into
the mining industry are first class because we are talking about first class
industry. And we can think of no better ally than the Ghana Standards Authority
because they are tasked by law to ensure standards of various activities within
the country,” Mr Koney said.
“So we are quite happy to
collaborate with the GSA to ensure that the whole agenda of local content and
the need for us to deepen the integration of the mining industry into the rest
of the economy is not seen as a fluke because we have milestones to guide us
and we believe that with the effort we will be able to improve manufacturing,”
he added.
Mr Koney said the mining industry
should be able to engender growth within other sectors of the economy,
especially manufacturing but this could only be done if there are the requisite
standards to feed into a world-class industry like the mining industry.
Mr Koney expressed the hope that
the journey would be mutually beneficial not just for Ghana Standards Authority
or the Chamber of Mines but the whole economy, adding that the basic steps
initiated would provide the fillip for our industries to actually veer into
other economic opportunities within the wider sub-region.
“We believe that we are taking
the very vital and important steps for us to actually grow our economy but not
only the extractives, particularly mining but just to make sure that we are
able to pull manufacturing and other sectors that have anything to do with
mining along,” he said.
GNA
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