President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has inaugurated a nine-member governing board to provide direction to the newly established Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF).
The members are George Mireku Duker, Chairman; Yaw Baah, Chief Executive Officer of the MIIF; Mrs Felicia Ashley, Representative of the Ministry of Finance; Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana; and Mr Amiishadai Owusu-Amoah, the Commissioner for Domestic Tax Revenue Division of GRA.
The rest are Ms Naana Dufie Addo, President’s nominee; Kow Essuman, President’s nominee, and Mrs Antoinette Kwofie, also a nominee of the President.
The ninth member, who is supposed to be a representative of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, is yet to be appointed.
According to the Minerals and Income Investment Fund Act, 218, (Act 978), the Act is to establish a fund to manage the equity interests of the country in mining companies, and receive mineral royalties and other related income due the country from mining operations to provide for the management and investment of the assets of the fund and for related matters.
The Act was assented to by the President on December 3 last year, after it was passed into law by Parliament.
Addressing the board at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday after administering the oaths of Office and Secrecy to the members, President Akufo-Addo urged the board to use the financial resources entrusted to them to raise indigenous players in the mining sector which had been dominated by international corporations.
He observed that after a century of mining in Ghana, the industry could not boast of a dominant local player and indicated that the situation was not good enough.
"Hopeful this fund, when properly managed and selectively invested, will over the period of time erase that image and give us a new architecture in the mining industry which includes significant Ghanaian players."
"It shouldn’t be the case that Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti and all these others are the only players in the Ghanaian industry," he said.
The President drew the attention of the Governing Board to the fact that they had a fiduciary relationship with the fund and that they hold the fund in trust for the people of Ghana."These monies belong to the people of Ghana and they are counting on you to use it judiciously, prudently and also with some imagination," President Akufo-Addo indicated."The operation of this fund could be a very critical step in the development and transformation of our […]