Ghana to build bauxite refinery in 3yrs – Bawumia
Vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed the government is
putting in place the necessary legislation and infrastructure to
establish a bauxite refinery in the next two to three years.
A bill seeking to set up a Bauxite Development Authority to
facilitate the establishment of an Integrated Aluminium Industry will be
submitted to Parliament early next year after broad consultations, with
the private sector expected to play a key role as part of Government’s
quest to create jobs and foster greater inclusion in national
development.
Dr Bawumia made these disclosures when he took part in a panel
discussion on the topic “The Private Sector and SDGs” at the High Level
African Roundtable on Mobilizing Support And Accelerating Implementation
of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) held in Accra on Tuesday.
“Our goal is to have an aluminium refinery in Ghana in the next two
to three, years, possibly by 2019. We are going to look at the power and
other issues, but there is no reason why we should not be refining our
gold or bauxite. There is a clear direction that the President has set,
we will go with the Bill to Parliament early next year, and we will move
on with the establishment of the refinery.
“We already have an aluminium smelter and we have the bauxite mine;
we just need the middle thing, which is the refinery, and then we will
see value addition to our minerals,” he stated.
The establishment of the Aluminium industry would be further
evidence of Government’s resolve to partner the private sector to
achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and make the life of
the ordinary Ghanaian better, he added.
According to Dr Bawumia, achieving the SDGs would benefit both the
private sector, who would have a healthy, skilled work force, and
Government which would have fulfilled its obligation to the citizenry to
provide a safe, healthy and economically sound environment for growth.
“At the end of the day we have to ask the question: what is the
opportunity cost of us not achieving the SDGs? We will have a lot of
hunger, we will have a lot of poverty, we will have issues with
sustainability of the environment, and so on. That picture of what would
happen if we don’t achieve the SDGs makes it therefore very imperative,
and in the interest of the private sector, that we do achieve the SDGs.
“Then we would have a more prosperous society, a more educated
workforce and a healthier population and these are all necessary
brickworks that would make the private sector do very well.
“If we achieve the SDGs it would mean that the necessary investments
have been made, and those investments present a huge opportunity for
private sector participation in national development,” Dr. Bawumia
averred.
The Vice President acknowledged government’s recognition of the crucial role played by the private sector in achieving the SDGs.
“The private sector is going to be very key because the type of
resources we need to invest in achieving the SDG cannot be provided by
the public sector alone; it is just not feasible. The public sector is
going to be there as a partner, to make sure that the investment climate
is therefore conducive for the private sector to participate.”
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