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Support galamsey to enhance economic fortunes - Presidential candidate

Dr. Henry Lartey said galamsey is just one informal area where overwhelming numbers of Ghanaians have resorted to for a living

 

The Chairman and leader of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Dr. Henry Lartey, has said it is an irony politicians are congratulating themselves when the Ghanaian economy is not creating decent jobs or livelihood opportunities for Ghanaians.

He has, therefore, called on the government to pass the necessary laws to make it easier for the hard-working youth, particularly those in the gold mining business, to gather more courage and strength to improve their skills through capacity building to enable them to reclaim the business which is dominated by foreigners.

According to Dr. Lartey, who was sharing the party’s thoughts on “Galamsey and its impact on the economy”, economic empowerment is what the hard-working Ghanaian needs to survive.

In his view, galamsey is just one informal area where overwhelming numbers of Ghanaians have resorted to for a living.

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He cited two instances of the same problem that galamsey operators were risking their lives in unsafe pits and the youth risking their lives in the middle of traffic in Accra selling imported junk.

To reverse this negative trend, Dr Lartey articulated the need for the country to be self-reliant, grow what it eats and “eat what it grows”.

He said all along, the GCPP had advocated the concept of domestication as the answer to solving the myriad of problems facing the country.

“Why are we wasting valuable time and money chasing Chinese money while they are here grabbing our gold and destroying our environment?” he asked.

He said that the influx of illegal Chinese operators, the accelerating rate of pollution of water bodies and general environmental degradation by illegal small-scale miners/galamsey, the increasing incidents of confrontations between state security personnel and illegal miners and other issues had made small-scale gold mining one of the hottest topics in current public discussions.

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He said while we must not leave the solution to the government alone, other stakeholders such as the banks and financial institutions could be proactive in the financing of the Ghanaian small-scale gold mining companies to be more efficient, instead of allowing foreigners to come and dominate the galamsey business with disregard for our environment.

Source: Graphiconlne

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