Sunday, July 18, 2010

MINING COMPANY SUPPORTS FARMERS IN FOOD PRODUCTION (PAGE 43, JULY 19, 2010)

ANGLOGOLD Ashanti (Iduapriem Mine) has committed GH¢94,177 this year to support 300 farmers in its host communities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality in the Western Region.
The money is to be used for the production of maize, vegetables and the development of oil palm plantations towards the improvement of food security in the communities.
The support is being provided under the mining company’s sustainable alternative livelihood programme, known as “Hand-in-hand’ project.
It includes the provision of oil palm seedlings, seeds, fertiliser, weedicides and pesticides, machetes, Wellington boots, knapsack spraying machines and technical assistance for the beneficiaries.
The company piloted the maize project last year through a collaboration with the Municipal Food and Agriculture Directorate for 90 farmers.
Considering the success of the project, 150 more farmers have been supported to cultivate 300 acres of maize this year.
The farms are expected to yield about 150 metric tonnes of maize valued at GH¢90,000 (US$ 62,937) into the local economy. The project is to improve on food security, that is, food availability, accessibility and utilisation.
The company has also received 13,500 improved oil palm seedlings from the Oil Palm Research Institute at a cost of GH¢33,750 (US$ 23,600) for distribution to the farmers. In addition, the farmers would be given fertiliser, machetes and Wellington boots.
Since the programme started in 2005, the Iduapriem Mine has committed approximately US$2.5 million in its socio-economic development programme in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation, infrastructural development and alternative livelihood programme to improve the living conditions of people in the host communities.
The company has in addition presented start-up kits to the first batch of hairdresser trainees sponsored by the company and have completed their apprenticeship.
Speaking at a ceremony for the presentation of the farm inputs to the beneficiary farmers at Adieyie, the Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti (Iduapriem Mine), Mr Billy Mawasha, said the programme had proved to be a source of employment and livelihood in the communities.
“We are very happy with the positive results and are also glad that the community is partnering with us to achieve these results,” he said.
Mr Mawasha said the Adieyie and Teberebie basic schools in the company’s operational area had also received assistance to cultivate three acres of maize to boost the study of agriculture in schools.
He said AngloGold Ashanti was equally committed to deepening the human resource development in the area.
According to him, the mine is currently sponsoring 63 students in various levels of study and apprenticeship at a total cost of GH¢150,000 per year under the company’s scholarship scheme.
Mr Mawasha said the company valued education that was why it had made a priority in its corporate social responsibility.
The managing director said the mine had started the construction of an additional three-classroom block at Wangarakrom/Badukrom for the upper primary level, adding, “We also hope to build junior high school (JHS) structures for Abompuniso next year to help decongest the Adieyie JHS.”
“We will want to encourage the beneficiaries to place value on the inputs they are receiving today to maximise the yield on their farms and have a successful farming season,” he stressed.
The Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mrs Christina Kobbinah, in an address read on her behalf, said it was important to appreciate the structural underpinnings of relationships between mining companies and host communities.
She said that was imperative, since any sigh of disrespect and indifference shown to the host communities was likely to breed animosity, rancour and strife.
Mrs Kobbinah said most often than not, mining companies operating in the country had been accused of environmental degradation and neglect of the people in the communities where they operated.
The assembly member for Adieyie, Mr Ernest Amoateng, advised the farmers to use the inputs to cultivate their farms to increase food production in the area.
He also advised members of the various communities to help amicably settle all differences that might arise between them and the mining company.
The Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Director of Food and Agriculture, Mr Daniel Essel, appealed to the company to support and encourage rice production in the municipality, since the area was endowed with a rainfall pattern and valleys suitable for rice production.

DRAW PLANS ON UTILISATION OF OIL REVENUE — AIDOO (PAGE 43, JULY 19, 2010)

THE Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, has called for holistic approach and a comprehensive plan towards the utilisation of revenue to be accrued from the oil find for the maximum benefit of the region and the country at large.
He was not happy that some metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, as well as traditional rulers in the region, were developing individual proposals which would enable them to benefit from the oil find.
“Every district and individual people are developing their own proposal towards the utilisation of the oil revenue,” he observed.
Mr Aidoo was speaking at the senior citizens day to mark this year’s Republic Day celebration in Sekondi.
“We have struck. Think of how to use the oil revenue for the development of the region and the country as a whole,” he said.
The regional minister called on the people irrespective of their political leaning, as well as the media, to focus on how to use the oil revenue for the socio-economic transformation of the country.
He stressed that individuals’ selfish interests and divisive tendencies would not help in maximising the oil revenue for the development of the country.
“All should unite to focus on how to use the oil revenue,” he said, adding that the Regional Co-ordinating Council would organise a workshop to deliberate on how best the region would derive maximum benefit from the oil revenue.

TARKWA-NSUAEM ASSEMBLY IMPROVES REVENUE GENERATION (PAGE 43, JULY 17, 2010)

WITH the inception of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), many metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies are now virtually depending on the fund for the execution of numerous development projects.
The institution of the common fund has made some assemblies relax in their internal income generation programmes or strategies.
The common fund was instituted to supplement the funding of development projects being implemented by the assemblies. They must, therefore, not be seen as the main source of funding of the development activities in the metropolis, municipalities and the districts.
This has created a situation where the delay in the release of the common fund makes the implementation of these projects very difficult.
Nowadays, most of the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies are not able to generate even half of their estimated annual revenue internally, as a result of their reliance on the common fund.
It is against this background that the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly in the Western Region has adopted measures to improve its internally generated revenue.
The assembly has undertaken major rehabilitation of the Tarkwa central market at a cost of GH¢260,000 to improve on the facilities in the market and to generate more revenue from the market.
The assembly has also institutionalised Mondays and Fridays as market days to make the market vibrant by encouraging all traders from surrounding satellite markets to bring their commodities and foodstuffs to the market to sell.
All traders operating from the lorry parks and streets have also been relocated to the Tarkwa central market through a decongestive exercise.
Speaking on the institutionalisation of the market days at the market, the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mrs Christina Kobbinah, said the market used to be very vibrant in the 1960s and 1970s.
She said unfortunately, over the years, not only did business in the market fall, but also the structures fell into a state of disrepair.
“It was no more attractive to the market women so many of them therefore chose to ply their trade at the lorry parks,” he explained.
Mrs Kobbinah said it was expected that the traders would participate in market days and make prices of their commodities relatively cheaper to attract more customers.
She stated that a market flourished when traders exhibited high sense of good customer relationship, good interpersonal communication and negotiation skills.
The MCE, therefore, appealed to the market women to adopt those common marketing principles so as to attract other traders to transact business in the market.
The Akyeamehene of Apinto Divisional Area, Nana Kobina Obbo, stated that the declaration of Mondays and Fridays as market days would boost business and trade and also improve the income of families, as well as revenue for the municipal assembly.
He appealed for peace to prevail in the market and urged the market queens to desist from imposing unnecessary high tolls on goods that would be brought from the rural areas to the market.
That practice, Nana Obbo said, would scare the rural people from patronising the market days, making business at the market to suffer.