By Juliet Aguiar DUGBARTEY, Tarkwa
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has cut the sod for the Mineral Income Investment Fund (MIIF) Technical Training Centre at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) at Tarkwa in the Western Region.
The centre, which will be completed within eight months, shall also have a 500-seater auditorium/lecture hall, a library and offices to support the running of practical programmes in metal smithing, jewelry technology and hallmarking of jewelry to international standards, while exploring artificial intelligence and smart systems in mineral value addition.
According to the President, this, is in line with the objective of making Ghana, a jewelry and technical training hub in Africa and support the development of technical expertise required, for value addition to minerals and increase job creation.
“The art of jewelry making I understand is dying. Though it is traditionally recognized as an important value addition process to gold, challenges with great craftmanship has bedeviled the industry. By building this centre, the expected deliverable is that a new breed of jewelers will be trained here.
They will be imbued with the necessary training to become brilliant jewelers and will also be trained in how to build businesses and more importantly given the skills that will ultimately turn Ghana into a jewelry hub for Africa. Any visitor to the country must demand Ghana’s gold jewelry in the same way our Kente has become a referential souvenir or keepsake for every tourist” the President explained.
He continued that “the day must soon be upon us when visitors come to Ghana’s gold jewelry hub as their sole purpose to the country and the students from this centre must be the lead jewelers”.
Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Minister for Finance, explained that the partnership that MIIF has formed in a short time, are of significance and one of such partnerships is with the UMaT.
He revealed that MIIF has collaborated framework agreement with the UMaT that spelt off four different components, “The first is the MIIF UMaT scholarship for women in mining communities. This will be launched in a month, and every year, 90 beneficiaries will be supported with scholarships for 10 years”.
The second, he said is the construction of the UMaT Technical Training and Jewelry Centre, the third is the MIIF-UMaT speaker series, a talk leadership event that bridges academia and practice has been held twice already on campus and the fourth is the continuous training of MIIF staff to understand the technicalities and the complexity associated with the mineral sub sector.
Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, CEO of MIIF said, the centre support the move towards ensuring that Ghanaians have ownership of the resources. We are looking for excellence and quality human resource from this centre.
MIIF, he said is ensuring that value is added to our minerals. “Local jewelry makers activities, will be supported, in fact, there will be a symbiotic relationship, some are very skilled in some of the old ways of jewelry making and they can marry that with the modern ways that will make it intrinsically Ghanaian”.
He commended UMaT for producing the best engineers in the country and the world at large.
George Mireku Duker, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources was of the firm believe that the centre, will further propel UMaT into a centre of excellence for training world class professionals in the down stream aspect of mining and allied industries.
John Ntim Fordjour, the Deputy Minister of Education, noted that Universities in the country, are being repositioned to be credible tools to support the industry and to be centers of innovations where researchers in the 21st century would be seen.
Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, the Western Regional Minister, expressed appreciation to the MIIF for sponsoring such a huge project in the region.
He noted that construction of this technical training Centre in UMAT is a smart idea considering how the country’s mineral scene is changing.
“I am convinced, that the technical training centre when completed and operational, will assist the University train the country’s youth and equip them with the required technical competences for the mining industry”.
Pro Vice Chancellor of UMaT, Prof Richard Amankah was hopeful the centre will train more of the youth in the sector to gain employment opportunity.
