Ghana Chamber of Mines unhappy with low ratings of members with AKOBEN

The Ghana Chamber of Mines, the umbrella body of mining companies in Ghana is unhappy with a new system of evaluating environmental and social performance of miners in the country – AKOBEN.

The AKOBEN management tool is an environmental management initiative developed two years ago by the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess the performance of the country’s two extractive sectors –mining and oil, by using a five-colour rating scheme.

In a press release issued in Accra and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, the Chamber while acknowledging the usefulness of the system says it is “not perfect.”

“The Chamber agrees with the comments of the Executive Director of the EPA at the launch that the system is not perfect and is pleased that, going forward, the AKOBEN system will itself be undergoing continuous improvement in collaboration with the private sector,” it says.

It however noted that it is concerned that many of its member companies obtained low ratings in some categories.

“Some of this relates to the ‘growing pains’ of the AKOBEN system. In its current form, the Chamber believes the AKOBEN audit does not give a true representation of our members’ performance,” the release says.

According to the Chamber all of its member companies are in the process of reviewing their AKOBEN reports and will be engaging with the EPA on corrective actions where appropriate.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi