Mr. Eric Opoku, the Brong- Ahafo Regional Minister, has appealed to mining companies to come out with measures that could sustain farmers whose lands are being taken over by mining companies.
He said the farmers could not invest compensations paid to them, making their situations worse after some few years.
The minister said this when a delegation led by Mr.Gene A. Cretz, the US Ambassador in Ghana, paid a courtesy call on him.
Other members of the delegation are Mr Christopher Thormley, Canadian High Commissioner in Ghana and Mr Gordon Chajkaodza, the Australian Trade.
The delegation is on tour of the region to observe mining activities and how it affected cocoa farms in the mining communities.
He said the farmers had been depending and surviving on their land over the years but had nothing again to depend on after exhausting compensation paid to them.
Mr. Opoku said the farmers were using the land as as collateral to take loans from banks, adding that if no interventions were put in place for them, the mining industry’s main aim for the farmers would be defeated.
He however stated that the benefits of the mining industry in the Region were numerous in the field of education and on health.
Mr. Opoku said the relationship between the mining industry and the nation was very cordial.
He said the mining industry paid a lot of taxes to the state which contributed to the development of the economy.
Mr Opoku said in 2013, the mining industry paid over GHC300 million to the state and had also established a nursing institution at Ntotoroso in the Region.
Source: GNA
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