The President of the Accra Mining Network, Mrs Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo has called on the younger generation of the African continent to buy back their future by investing in the natural resource sectors of their respective communities.
Georgette was speaking to a group of African students following the Local Economic and Social Development in the Extractives (LESDE) Programme at the University of Queensland, Australia.
The programme was under the auspices of the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), but is the brain child of the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency Andrew Barnes. The LESDE ASM Programme, which is an Australia Awards Short Course Programme, also served as a fulfillment promise made by H. E. Andrew Barnes to help Ghana in particular and Africa in general find proactive solutions to the challenges of the 21st Century posed by Small Scale and Artisanal Mining activities on the African continent.
A total of thirty student-participants selected from Ghana, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameron, Madagascar and Tanzania followed the programme in Brisbane and had come to Ghana for the experiential part.
Mrs. Sakyi-Addo, who is also the President of Women in Mining Ghana, enumerated the opportunities available in the full supply chain in the extractive industry and called on the participants to look for these opportunities in their respective countries and invest their time, knowledge and money. She said this is the only way new knowledge can be contributed into the sector by the people who have the requisite and the superior expertise. This she said would be the critical ingredient that could subsequently sanitize the sector. She opined that, not getting involved in the activities of the sector and complaining from afar or ‘outside’ would never bring the positive change we all desire.
The programme was held at the La Villa Boutique in Accra Ghana on March 27, 2019. Lynda Lawson, Timothy Andrews, and Fitsum Weldegiorgis all of the University of Queensland were the Leader, Coordinator and Facilitator respectively.
