Salt sector needs attention – Chamber of Mines

By Isaac Aidoo

The Ghana Chamber of Mines has called for increased attention to be given to Ghana’s salt industry to realise its full potential.

“It’s a natural resource that is not being promoted the way it should be but then there is the need to take full advantage of that resource and exploit it to our benefit,” said the Director Public Affairs for the Chamber and Environment, Mr Ahmed Nantogmah.

Mr Nantogmah made the call during an interview with The Finder on the sidelines of a workshop on oil and gas reporting for some selected Journalists in Accra.

The training programme, on the theme “strengthening media oversight over the extractive sector: Reporting on oil, gas and mining is under the collaborative aegis of the Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI) and Penplusbytes.

According to him, the industry has the potential to generate tremendous revenue for the country if it is well marketed to both domestic and international investors.

Salt production in Ghana started in the 19th century and, aside from fishing, it is the major economic activity of people along its 500km coastline. 

The salt producing areas in Ghana include the Keta lagoon, the Songhor lagoon, the Densu Delta area, Nyanya lagoon, Oyibi lagoon, Amisa lagoon, Benyah lagoon.

Salt as a renewable natural resource is said to contribute billions of Ghana cedis annually to the economy and employs more than 1,500 people. 

In the ECOWAS sub-region, the demand for industrial salt is estimated at over 3 million tonnes. Ghana and Senegal, the biggest regional players, possess all the right conditions for commercial salt production and together produce 350,000 tonnes per year. But this is not enough to satisfy demand and imports from Brazil, Australia and Europe make up the shortfall.

Earlier on in his presentation to the participants, Mr Nantogmah noted that the presence of mineral deposits and mining instalments provides an opportunity to catalyze industrial development through the numerous linkages with the other sectors of the economy.

“It is important to state that harnessing and maximizing these opportunities require purposeful interventions from the trustee of mineral resources. At the same time we must recognise the fact that mineral deposits are exhaustible and non-renewable and mining may elicit negative externalities which may defy time,” he pointed out.

The net value of mining to an economy according to him “depends on how these risks and returns are balanced in the statutes and polices governing the sector.”

Throwing light on the mining sector’s contribution to the economy, Mr Nantogmah disclosed that  the sector raked in  GH¢1.1billion as revenue to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) representing 18.7% of GRA’s Total Direct Taxes in 2013.

In spite of the decline in gold price, the minerals sector contributed GH¢518million incorporate tax to the GRA, representing 19.5% of the total company tax collected in 2013. 

The industry accounted for 37.6% of the country’s gross export revenue in 2013, reinforcing its position as a leading source for forex and a major contributor to the country’s balance of payments.Producing members of the Chamber returned US$3.1billion, representing 68% of their mineral revenue through the BoG and the Commercial Banks last year.The sector is the country’s undisputed leading source of foreign direct investment (FDI).Records from the Minerals Commission show that FDI inflow into the mining sector in 2013 was US$1.154billion.Cumulatively, the investment inflow into the sector from 2000 to 2013 stood above US$7billion.