Ghana\u2019s mining industry is employing more people from host communities than ever before, with nearly 42% of workers at some mining companies now coming directly from local areas.<\/p>\n
That is according to the Acting Chief Executive of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ahmed Dasana Nantogmah.<\/p>\n
Speaking on JoyNews\u2019\u00a0PM Express Business Edition<\/em>\u00a0on Thursday, May 22, Nantogmah made a strong case for the sector\u2019s commitment to what he called\u00a0\u201clocal-local\u201d<\/em>\u00a0employment\u2014people from the immediate mining communities, not just Ghanaians in general.<\/p>\n \u201cMining companies do their best with local employment, what we call local-local employment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you are from the local community\u2014Ahafo, Kenyasi, Hwidiem and the like\u2014then you are considered local-local.\u201d<\/p>\n He revealed that some of the major mining firms, including Newmont, employ between 40% to 45% of their workforce from these communities.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the employees within the company itself\u2014about 42% are Ghanaians, local people,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n Mr Nantogmah explained that it is not just about giving jobs, but also about building skills.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they even have to train the people. They take them through apprenticeships. And once you are qualified, they employ those they can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who are not employable by the company are given certificates of competency so they can go out and look for jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Responding to a question by host George Wiafe about whether companies are required to hire a certain percentage of residents if they are qualified, Mr Nantogmah confirmed there is indeed a policy direction guiding that practice. But he cautioned against extreme interpretations.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t say that every employee, 100%, should come from the local community,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n \u201cOtherwise, people in Accra will also say the same\u2014that I\u2019m a Ga and only Gas should be employed. That also doesn\u2019t set a good precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, he was clear that empowering local people is a deliberate and ongoing effort by the mining firms.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery mining company employs citizens. There\u2019s no way you can work in the community without employing people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Beyond jobs within the mines, local residents are also awarded a range of service contracts.<\/p>\n \u201cHaulage, catering, security\u2014all kinds of things are given to locals just to empower them,\u201d Mr Nantogmah added.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a deliberate policy to bring the mines to local communities, and that\u2019s what is being done.\u201d<\/p>\n He acknowledged that in the early days of mining in Ghana, host communities lacked the necessary skills.<\/p>\n \u201cGone were the days when mining started, and people were not mining-oriented. We didn\u2019t have the capacity or human resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut now we do. A lot of people can work on the mines, and a majority of them come from the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ghana\u2019s mining industry is employing more people from host communities than ever before, with nearly 42% of workers at some mining companies now coming directly from local areas. That is according to the Acting Chief Executive of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ahmed Dasana Nantogmah. Speaking on JoyNews\u2019\u00a0PM Express Business Edition\u00a0on Thursday, May 22, Nantogmah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":11128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3507],"tags":[3566,3567],"class_list":["post-11127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-ahmed-dasana-nantogmah","tag-chamber-of-mines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11129,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11127\/revisions\/11129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}