I’ll make small-scale miners millionaires – Bawumia

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has pledged to transform small-scale miners into millionaires if elected president.

Addressing a group of small-scale miners in the Western Region as part of his Nationwide Tour, the vice president outlined plans to revolutionize the mining sector to benefit local miners.

He emphasised the establishment of community mining schemes in abandoned shafts and the exploration of new mining sites to create jobs and wealth for citizens.

“We will talk to the big mining companies; abandoned shafts, we will open them as community mining schemes for our people, and the new places that we will discover, we will open them. We will create jobs for our people, we will make you millionaires and we will make you rich, that is what we are going to do,” he declared.

However, the promise has been met with scepticism by some small-scale miners.

Michael Kojo Peprah, President of the Small-Scale Miners Association, dismissed Bawumia’s pledge as political rhetoric.

He pointed out the hardships faced by small-scale miners under the current government, including a one-year ban on their sector and the controversial Operation Vanguard.

“I think he is just trying to lie to us. We became very poor when his government came into power. That was when they placed a one-year ban on our sector. We were in this country when the government started burning excavators when they brought about this operation Vanguard.

“He was the vice president. Joe Osei Owusu told us in this country to shoot to kill small-scale miners. He never did or said anything to console us. We were here when excavators flew from Ghana into our neighbouring countries, he never said anything.

“So if you have about eight months to redeem whatever your government has done and you’ve not been able to do it, and you come back to tell us that you want to make us millionaires then we take what he said as a joke.”