Deputy Lands Minister charges MIIF to take steps to curb gold-smuggling

The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr George Mireku Duker has charged the management of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) to partner with the National Security, Lands and Finance Ministries to curb gold smuggling.

He indicated that the trend where a chunk of the country’s precious minerals leaves the shores of the country unchecked affects the economy and hence cannot be allowed to continue.

The Minister who said this at the Second MIIF Stakeholders Forum on Wednesday in Accra, noted that in 2022 alone, it was reported that nearly 60 tonnes of gold were smuggled out of the shores of Ghana.

“It is estimated that Ghana loses approximately US$2 billion annually in tax revenue due to smuggling and illegal gold operations,” he added.

According to him, the worrying development, if left unchecked could encourage the illegal mining menace, popularly known as galamsey and could deny the state the needed revenue.

Shedding light on the importance of MIIF, Mr Duker challenged management to look at the value addition avenues in the current mining space and provide the necessary support for economically viable options.

Emphasizing the important role of value addition to the realization of the full benefits from Ghana's mineral resources, Mr Duker stated that value addition was the missing link between resource-rich countries and developed nations.

He said often countries that benefit immensely from these minerals are those that do not even possess these minerals but are endowed with the necessary technologies to refine these minerals into valuable products.

“The absence of or limited access to technology in most of the mineral-rich countries has meant that the minerals are only exploited and exported to other jurisdictions which are more technologically endowed and therefore have a comparative advantage in that respect.

“Indeed, sometimes some of these countries with the technology to add the value have virtually no mineral endowment at all,” the Deputy Minister explained.

On his part, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MIIF, Mr Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng disclosed that the fund was working to ensure that in the next 10 years, their royalty base will grow to US$6 billion.

“Looking at that growth and the fact that we are expanding the royalties and we are seeing more money come into play, we are seeing more minerals come into play, especially the critical mineral side, the graphite and all that,” he said.