District Chief Executive of Gomoa East District Assembly, Solomon Darko Kwam, has disclosed that Quarry Development Fund has been set up in all quarry districts across the country.
According to him, the move follows series of meetings and agreements between quarry operators led by their mother association on behalf of all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
The fund, he noted, would help to boost corporate social responsibilities in the communities where the quarries are located.
“We met with the stakeholders and have decided that we all need each other after all the factions tabled their challenges and everything as far as their work is concerned and so we have all agreed and hence the need for us to set up a fund to enable the assemblies and affected communities have some good benefits from its extraction through that fund,” he said on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem Friday.
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In November 2021, the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development was compelled to hold stakeholder meetings on the matter due to petitions and counter petitions.
The meeting was adjourned to a later date with an admonition to the parties to try to engage each other to reach a consensus.
Mr Darko Kwam noted in view of that the two parties and their members took it upon themselves to continue the engagement, culminating in the mutual agreement for the nationwide rollout of the fund.
The implementation of the fund, according to Mr Darko Kwam, who doubles as the acting chairman for Quarry District Association of Ghana means every cubic meter of stones purchased from the quarries would attract five cedis.
The rollout is supposed to take effect from April 1, 2022, but may put it on hold as they await Minister Dan Botwe to go through the agreements and give his opinion and subsequently green light from the minister before it would be rolled out.