In spite of its challenges, Ghana’s mining industry accounted for about 46% of the country’s gross export revenue in 2016, against 32.2% recorded in the previous year, the Ghana Chamber of Mines has revealed.

The chamber maintains that the development reinforces mining as the leading source of foreign exchange and a major contributor to the country’s balance of payments.

In nominal terms, the revenue realised from the export of minerals increased from $3.32 billion to $5.05 billion. Cocoa and crude oil followed with respective shares of 22.3% and 12.5%, which also translates into $2.48 billion and $1.39 billion of export receipts, respectively.

At a day’s training workshop for members of the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) in Accra, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Sulemanu Koney said “the proceeds from export of minerals is a little more than twice that of cocoa and more than three times the outturn of crude oil in 2016.”

The theme for the workshop was ‘Deepening the integration of the mining industry into the non-mineral economy’.

The workshop is an annual collaboration between the chamber and the JBA with the objective of keeping the media informed about developments in the mining sector.

The chamber was delighted with the fact that the January 2017 report of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana had observed that, “For the first time since 2011, the provisional balance of payments in 2016 recorded a surplus. This largely reflected an improvement in the trade balance driven by a rise in gold export receipts and a fall in oil import prices.”

Mr Koney further disclosed that total fiscal receipts attributable to the mining and quarry sector had gone up by 22% from GH¢1.35 billion in 2015 to GH¢1.65 billion in the 2016 fiscal year.

Producing members of the chamber retained some $2.30 billion out of the $3.25 billion realised into the country as mineral revenue, a representation of 70.9%.

This comprised of payments of GH¢399.9 million, GH¢696.9 million, GH¢550.7 million and GH¢0.54 million as Pay As You Earn (PAYE), corporate income tax, royalties among other taxes, respectively.

He revealed also that the mining and quarry sector has once again assumed the top spot as the highest payer of domestic tax in the country in 2016 based on figures from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

It would be recalled that in the preceding year 2015, the finance and insurance sector occupied the top position as the country’s leading taxpayer.

On revenue and merchandise exports, he said in 2015 the mining sector contributed about 14.4% of government revenue and 34% in terms of total merchandise exports and produced about 3.6 million ounces of gold, which resulted in export revenue of about $3.3 billion.

“Also, the same year, mining companies repatriated about 72% of foreign exchange into the economy,” he revealed.