The Executive Director of the Center for Social Impact Studies (CeSIS), Ghana, Robert Tanti Ali, has called for harmonized policies and legislation that would tackle the challenges facing the solid minerals sector of West African countries. According to him, this will operationalize the ECOWAS directive on the harmonization of all the principles and guidelines in the extractive sector.
Speaking on two separate panels at the West African Mining Host Communities Indaba in Abuja, he said it is clear that across the sub region, there exist similar challenges confronting the extractive sector.
He noted that in Ghana, illegal mining is a huge challenge with the destruction of water bodies and farms affecting production food and commercial crops.
At the event, members of host communities across West Africa accused political actors of giving illegal miners the cover and courage to perpetrate their nefarious activities to the detriment of host communities and the country at large.
