The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says small-scale miners will become millionaires if he is elected as the next president of Ghana.
The Vice President gave the assurance when he interacted with a group of small-scale miners in the Western Region as part of his nationwide tour.
According to him, he has plans to revolutionise the mining sector to benefit local miners.
He also reiterated his plans to establish 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 said.
Meanwhile, Small-Scale Miners Association has described the promise as a political rhetoric.
Michael Kojo Peprah, President of the Association said: “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.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
