Parliament in 2016 passed the Mineral Development Fund (MDF) Act (Act 912) to regulate and govern the distribution of portions pf mineral royalties to local government and mining development institutions, and as well to provide a legal basis for such distribution.

Ideally, MDF-funded projects should aim at maintaining the effects of mining on the environment, as well as support the operating budgets of mining regulatory institutions and mineral-specific projects.

However, some NGO’s in Sunyani are up in arms about what they call ’’misplaced priority in management and utilization of the fund.’’

The irony is that mineral revenue contribute significantly to the economy, yet mining communities have very little to show for it. According to the Bank of Ghana, the mining sector was the leading source of foreign exchange in 2015; contributing in excess of 31 percent of total merchandise exports.

The MDF act is premised on the need to address inequality in the distribution of benefits enable mining host communities access a share of minerals extracted from their communities.

Speak have been exploited for lack of a workable law. One of the major changes that is likely to reflect in the new law is that tenants will be required to pay only 12-months advance in rent at a press brief in Sunyani, the Executive Director of Makers Network Foundation – Eunice Ntiwa Yeboah, said women and the youth are not fairly represented on key decision-taking bodies such as the Mining Community Development Scheme to prompt their interests.

Eunice went on to explain that most women who lost farmland to the mine in the Asutifi North district are yet to receive befitting alternative livelihoods to make them productive. She further pointed out that inadequate compensation for destroyed properties by mining, coupled with high level of mismanagement and inequitable utilization of limited resources, underpin the need for involving women and youth in managing the MDF in Asutifi North to change the narrative. The planning officer of Asutifi North District Assembly explained that the assembly “judiciously” uses its share of the fund- for sanitation, health and education in the communities.

However, we believe adequate compensation must be paid to those whose livelihoods have been affected by mining activities –such as the loss of farmlands etc. Otherwise, it will exacerbate the social problems of the community and while the Assembly is investing in basic infrastructural projects that benefit the community as a whole, some allocation can be put aside as compensation for those whose livelihoods have been affected.

Additionally, we feel NGOs can lobby for representation of women and other marginalized group like the youth.