Royalties for Land Owners To Be Publicized
THE MINISTER for Lands and Natural Resources, Collins Dauda has announced that all royalties paid to land owners in mining areas of the country would be made known to the public.
He revealed that land owners had been cheated for years, adding that stringent efforts had been put in place to cease negative activities surrounding royalty payments.
According to him, in order to promote harmony in the mining sub-sector, his outfit was doing everything possible to provide necessary platforms for transparent engagement of all stakeholders.
Hon. Dauda made these remarks when he addressed the media during the 'Meet-The-Press' series on Tuesday, November 03, 2009.
He stated that a number of regulations had been drafted and submitted to stakeholders for a review in order to ensure that the country maximizes the full benefit of mineral resources under the Minerals and Mining Act 703(2006).
“To forestall the rampant conflicts between communities affected by mining and mining firms, the Ministry for Lands and Resources through its agencies has awarded contracts under the NREG Programme for guidelines for Social Responsibility programmes for mining companies, including baseline data on social conflicts and guidelines on the Mineral Royalties by Districts and Municipal Assemblies, among others.”
The Minister stressed that the Minerals draft regulations had been submitted to the Attorney General Department for review with the finalization expected by February 2010.
Touching on Forest and Wildlife sub-sector, the Minister said he would strengthen public accountability and transparency in official processes to promote participatory and consultative platforms for policy-making regulation and management of mineral resources.
“Currently, it is estimated that the country can boast of only 1.6 million hectors of forest as deforestation rate is also estimated to be 65,000 hectares per annum in the country,” he said.
He stressed that under the 2010 to 2011 initiative, 100 District Assemblies would be covered in both on-and off-reserve areas with each District Assembly employing 300 workers for the plantation programme, adding,
“This will create 30,000 jobs within the period and by the end of 2011, more than 51,000 jobs will be created in all the 170 Districts Assemblies in the country.”
Hon. Dauda pointed out that the bamboo and rattan industries would receive the needed attention within the framework of rural enterprise development.
He also confirmed that the Land Banks policy would be finalized to facilitate land accessibility for industrial development. According to Hon. Dauda, government is committed to returning some compulsorily acquired lands to their owners in cases where it has no use for the lands, adding that the public should refrain from transacting any business over these lands except with the Lands Commission.
From Stella Danso & Emma Finch