The Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Martin Ayisi has responded to calls for government to stop issuing licenses for people to go into mining.
Pressure has been mounted on the government by organized labour and Ghanaian youth to stop giving out mining licenses as the country continues to deal with the staggering effects of illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.
However, Martin Ayisi who is against this assertion said that giving out licenses rather helps the course because people will do illegal mining if licenses are not granted by the government.
“When you don’t give them the licenses, what they would do is that – they would go and to do it illegally. To say that we shouldn’t grant licenses, that would be a problem,” he told Parliament’s Assurance Committee on Monday, October 7, 2024.
He added that delays in giving out licenses to people wanting to go into the mining industry contribute to illegal mining.