Accra, Dec. 05, - The Government
is drafting a bill to be presented to Parliament for the establishment of the
Ghana Integrated Aluminium and Bauxite Development Authority.
The move reflects President Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s commitment to establishing an Integrated Aluminium
Industry to serve Ghana and Africa, Vice
President of the Republic, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has stated.
The Authority, Dr Bawumia said,
would play the important role of promoting responsible mining, and regulating
the development of the industry.
“The Authority will be
responsible for the development of the necessary infrastructure, including
rail, roads and energy, industrial parks, and associated social infrastructure
to support related businesses in the sector and the industry as a whole.
The Vice President was addressing
the Regional Forum on the extractive industry in Ghana, co-sponsored by the
Government and the Uongozi Institute, which is under the Office of the
President of Tanzania.
The three-day Forum is under the
theme “Enhancing Value Addition in the Extractive Sector in Africa: Why is It
Important and How Can it be achieved,” and brings together participants and
experts from across Africa, Asia, Europe and America.
Explaining the Government’s
decision to convene the forum, Vice President Bawumia said President Akufo-Addo
was “committed to moving our extractive sector beyond the old paradigm as part
of the vision to move Ghana beyond aid.”
The building of the integrated
aluminum industry, he emphasised, was part of the Government’s strategy to
encourage the private sector to create and capture more value from our
resources.
“As we deliberated on this
paradigm shift and were trying to make a break from the past, in drafting this
new bill we thought it was very very important to get the best minds across the
continent and in the world to discuss the whole issue of value addition,” he
explained.
“One of the rationales for us as the
Presidency collaborating with the UONGOZI Institute on this was to bring the
best minds together. You are the experts here, you are the thinkers, so we
brought you here to basically deliberate quite rigorously on the best way
forward.
“We don't have all the answers.
We want to learn from best practice and the experiences of other countries and
thinkers in this area. We have very high expectations so that we can make good
decisions at the end of the day.”
Citing figures from industry
experts, Dr Bawumia said it was imperative for Africans, in general, and Ghana,
in particular, to add value to her raw materials in order to reap bigger
benefits.
“According to industry estimates,
the price per carat increases roughly eightfold from rough diamond to polished
gem-quality diamond. The earning margins are much higher in the upstream sector
(16-20%) than in the middle market sector (1-8%),” he revealed.
“The value of bauxite increases
nearly six times of refined into alumina and nearly 33 times if converted into
aluminum metal alloy. Given the various stages of the value chain, I know,
which part I want to be in.”
The Vice President challenged the
participants to deliberate extensively on the difficulties associated with
value addition and come up with recommendations suited to the continent.
“While value addition is a
laudable initiative, its implementation is not without challenges; Hence the
need for this conversation,” he stated.
“We should come out of this round
table discussion with an extensive report on policy recommendations on how
African governments can add value to our vast natural resources, bauxite in the
particular case of Ghana, and with a clear road map on how it should be
implemented.
“The push for Value Addition is
also in recognition that exporting the resources in raw form and taxing only
profits, in effect, export jobs, denies us the opportunities to gain any substantial
part of the revenues generated from the range of activities along the value
chain.”
The Vice President, however,
asked the delegates to deliberate the following questions and others:“As the
second largest gold producing country in Africa, after South Africa, and the
10th largest globally, why has Ghana been unable to successfully add value to
its gold?
“Why are we still in the raw
material export silo of our minerals? Is it a question of technology, of
financing or of human resources? Or is it a question of leadership?
“What are the hindrances to
promoting value addition to Africa’s extractive resources? What ought to be the
role of government in promoting value addition to its natural resources?
GNA
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