President John Dramani Mahama has acknowledged that illegal mining, widely known as galamsey, involves actors across political and traditional structures, cautioning that tackling the problem will be difficult but necessary.
He made the remarks during a meeting with Organised Labour at the Jubilee House on Tuesday, March 17.
According to the President, illegal mining has become deeply entrenched in Ghanaian society, cutting across political divides and local leadership, which complicates efforts to address it.
“Illegal mining has eaten into the fabric of our society. And I must say that it is not only a menace to our society, but it has involved a circle of traditional rulers, political party appointees and everything,” he said.
He explained that the persistence of galamsey is partly due to operators shifting allegiance whenever governments change.
“Even when one party changes, those who were running some operation, who went to one party, will go to the next party and say, now that you have come, come and take over this operation and let’s share. We too will be getting small, this is what we are doing. And so I don’t kid myself that we don’t have our own people involved,” he stated.
President Mahama admitted that the work of the anti-illegal mining task force remains difficult, particularly in communities where enforcement teams face strong resistance.
“And the work of the NAIMOS is not easy. They go to a community, and the chiefs, the youth and everybody come out and resist them. And so I didn’t kid myself that we will be able to win that fight overnight. But we cannot relent; we must continue,” he said.
He also linked the surge in illegal mining to challenges within the cocoa sector, noting that low producer prices have pushed some farmers into gold mining.
“And it doesn’t help when we have crisis in the cocoa industry. The low price that was paid to cocoa farmers made some of them give up their farms for gold mining,” he noted.
The President expressed optimism that stabilising cocoa prices could reverse the trend, revealing plans for a pricing mechanism that ensures farmers receive a fair share of global earnings.
“We are hoping that it will stabilize with the new automatic mechanism we are coming with so that farmers know that they are getting 70% of the price,” he said.
He further highlighted logistical constraints affecting the anti-galamsey fight, particularly the lack of patrol equipment for monitoring waterways and forest reserves.
“One of the problems we have is we don’t have patrol boats, especially on our waterways for nine months to continue to patrol the waterways,” he explained.
He added that government is working with the Finance, Defence and Interior ministries to address these gaps.
“So we are working with the minister of finance to be able to maintain that,” he said.
