President Mahama Directs Minerals Commission to Issue Small-Scale Mining Licence to UMaT 

President John Dramani Mahama has directed the Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission to issue a small-scale mining licence to the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT).

This, according to him, aims to turn the university into a model operation for training and licensing purposes.

In his address at the university’s 18th Special Convocation, the President made the call with the Minerals Commission Chief Executive present in the audience. 

He envisioned the licensed operation not only as a training ground for students at the university but also as a facility where licensed small-scale miners across the country could come to learn how mining works.

President Mahama also used the occasion to address a number of challenges facing the university and Ghana’s tertiary institutions more broadly. 

He acknowledged that financial clearance for the recruitment of lecturers has stalled at several universities, a matter that has been brought to his attention on multiple occasions. 

He assured graduating students and faculty that the Minister of Finance has been made aware of the issue and that clearance and allocation of numbers to universities would come soon.

“For graduate students who are looking to become lecturers, don’t give up. Soon, you’ll hear some good news,” the President told the gathering.

On the matter of the university’s mining museum and research programs, President Mahama admitted that funding has dried up after royalties previously channeled to the Minerals Account Investment Fund were redirected by the Ministry of Finance into a separate programme. 

The fund, he said, no longer receives the same volume of resources it once did.

The President assured those present that alternative funding is being sought and that the museum and research projects would be completed in the short term, once the funding arrangements are in place.

Richard Aniagyei, ISD