The Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) is advocating for a legal framework to guide the utilisation of mineral royalties paid to mining districts.
According to CDD, weak fiscal transparency is one of the challenges of the Assembly and the local mining committees(LMCs), hence the need for a framework to guide project funding.
A Research analyst with CDD-Ghana, Emmanuel Yeboah said this in an interview on Asempa FM Ekosii Sen programme while sharing insight on their report on the Mining Districts Development Scorecard.
“You realise that some of these mining districts receive the royalties due them but you cannot identify the projects these monies are used for. So we need that legal framework,” he said.
Mr Yeboah raised concerns over the shortfalls in mineral revenue allocation to mining districts, citing the medium for disbursement.
“When it comes to the central government levels, we observed the shortfalls in the mineral revenue. It comes to the MDF then to the administrator of stool lands before it gets to the assemblies and the Local Management Committees(LMCs) so you realised by the time the money arrives, it has reduced drastically,” he said.
Despite Ghana’s longstanding history as a resource-rich nation, it is widely known that communities that produce these minerals are lagging in terms of development.
But as part of their research, Mr Yeboah said they discovered that the percentage of mineral royalties allocated to mining communities was woefully inadequate, and that accounted for the gap in development in these communities.
He has therefore appealed to the government to put in place to address the shortfalls and the revenue cuts coupled with calls for an increase in the mineral royalties.
The Mining District Development Scorecard is an initiative of the CDD-Ghana with support from the Ford Foundation to track the usage of mineral revenue in mining districts in the country.
The project seeks to promote transparency, and accountability and improve social and human development outcomes.
The project’s long-term goal is to empower and strengthen community participation in natural resource governance and management for better development at the sub-national level in Ghana.
Birim North District emerged as the top-ranked district overall in the 2023 MDDS league table, scoring 42.4 out of 100 points.
Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal is ranked 2nd with a score of 41.9 points, and Wassa East District is ranked 3rd with 41 points.
Asutifi North District which CDD found out receives the highest royalties placed 7th, a position Mr Yeboah said was unsatisfactory.
This he noted suggests severely ‘weak’ governance practices in the municipality’s management and utilization of mineral royalties.
Also, he urged the assemblies to scale up its public engagement campaigns to render account to the public on the utilization of mineral royalties.
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