Samuel Abdulai Jinapor
Lands and Natural Resources Minister-designate, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, has proposed the establishment of Salt Development Authority to build a full value chain for the production of salt in the country.
According to him, salt is a major and important resource which Ghana needs to tap into, indicating that the nation is at a strategic position to exploit the “white gold” to its economic advantage.
Taking his turn at the vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament yesterday, Mr. Jinapor said, “Ghana has enough commercial deposit of salt which I believe we have to exploit, and the full value chain of salt has to be established here in Ghana.
“For instance, you cannot build an integrated aluminum industry without salt. You cannot build an integrated iron and steel industry in Ghana without salt and likewise the petrochemical industry cannot actually thrive without salt.”
According to him, salt is extremely important and so measures have been put in place to fully develop it.
“I know that the administration of President Akufo-Addo in his first term has made some attempts and Ada Songhor is one example where I know a mining lease has been granted.
“There is an attempt to exploit the salt there, but I think that it has gotten to a time we probably should consider the Salt Development Authority. Today, Mr. Chairman, Nigeria consumes a lot of salt and yet the country imports salt from far away Brazil simply because we don’t have a salt terminal in Ghana,” he stated.
The nominee continued, “The distance between Ghana and Nigeria is closer and yet they still have to go far away to import salt. I believe if we should get this authority in place where we can have a refinery and terminal for salt, it will help a great deal.”
Lands
On the issue of land administration, the minister-designate said he would ensure the effective implementation of the new Land Act 2020 (1036) to help improve the administration of lands in the country.
According to him, this piece of legislation, when effectively implemented, would smoothen out the rough edges in the acquisition of land titles which has become a thorny issue eroding investors’ confidence.
“I will make sure we publicize it. We have to get the country to be aware of it and to know about the implications of the provisions of this Act 1036,” he said.
“We must have a strategy and policy to ensure that this Act is well implemented. Mr. Chairman, I say this because I have taken some look at the Act and I should respectfully commend Parliament for passing this law,” he submitted.
“We all acknowledge that in every dispensation or government, when you are rolling out policy or implementing policies, especially when you are dealing with intricate, complicated areas such as illegal small-scale mining, you will have problems,” Mr. Jinapor stated.
Mr. Jinapor noted that he had taken time to study a lot of literature on illegal mining activities and it became clear that in such a crusade, you come across challenges and stumbling blocks.
“You will have party people, bigwigs who will want to frustrate the situation, but what is important is that the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is absolutely committed to making an impact in this illegal small-scale mining industry,” he concluded.
By Ernest Kofi Adu