By Kizito CUDJOE
Birim North district in Eastern Region has been ranked the country’s top-performing mining district in the 2023 Mining District Development Scorecard (MDDS) League Table, an index assessing governance and utilisation of mineral revenues.
The district, home to Newmont’s Akyem gold mine, scored 42.4 out of 100 – edging out Tarkwa Nsuaem municipality and Wassa East district in Western Region.
Birim North’s top ranking is attributed to the district’s effective utilisation of mining revenues – particularly from Newmont’s Akyem gold mine – and illustrates the district’s adherence to fiscal transparency and local government effectiveness, among others.
Newmont’s Akyem mine has been operating in the Birim North district since 2013, playing a vital role in the district’s socioeconomic development.
Apart from the mine’s direct investment in major projects and programmes, the majority of its social investments are undertaken through the Newmont Akyem Development Foundation (NAkDeF), which is funded exclusively by the company with US$1 per ounce of gold sold, plus 1 percent of profit before tax.
NAkDeF is however governed by representatives from traditional leadership and a governing board made up of traditional leaders, representatives from Newmont and leaders from the mine host communities. This ensures that even though funding comes from the mine, investment decisions are made largely by the community; thereby giving communities control over their own destiny.
Among some of Newmont’s contributions in the Birim North district are; partnering with government, through the Cocoa Board (Cocobod) to rehabilitate the 35.5km road from New Abirem to Nkawkaw in 2022; supporting the building and renovation of about 150 infrastructural projects across its 10 host communities, including schools, clinics, social centres, durbar grounds, police bungalows and a multi-sport arena in Adausena, among others.
The mine also has also invested in New Abirem Government Hospital, which provides quality health care to residents of both the Atiwa East and Kwaebibirem districts; the construction of a PCR laboratory during the peak of COVID for treating infectious diseases at the New Abirem government hospital; and construction of maternity and paediatric wards among others.
It offers about 6,000 scholarships to young people from host communities to pursue various courses, particularly at the tertiary level, while it has also constructed of a vocational technical institution that offers 4 technical courses to about 250 students in host communities.
The MDDS is an initiative of Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) in partnership with the Ford Foundation.
The initiative is aimed at strengthening transparency and accountability in the use of mineral revenues to promote socio-economic development in mining districts of the country.
Under the MDDS League Table, the following metrics are used to evaluate the quality of district-level governance in management and utilisation of mineral royalties: local government effectiveness – which measures the quality of planning and budgeting processes; programme implementation and local resource mobilisation capacity of District Assemblies in the country’s mineral resource-rich districts.
It also considers fiscal transparency – which measures adherence to public financial management information disclosure practices and the availability of channels for sharing information and reports relating to mineral royalties’ transfers.
Local management committee effectiveness – measures the organisational, operational and management effectiveness of local management committees in overseeing management of mining community development schemes.
Citizen participation and engagement – measures citizens’ participation and engagement (including vulnerable groups such as youth and women) in local government decision-making processes (planning and budgeting).
Mineral Development Fund utilisation efficiency – measures efficiency in the utilisation of mineral royalty revenues by District Assemblies and Local Management Committees to promote inclusive local socio-economic development.
The district’s success serves as evidence that mining revenues can be used to drive sustainable development and improve the lives of citizens.
