Farmers appeal to Newmont Ahafo Mine to review rate for crops
Farmers at Ntotroso, a mining community in the Ahafo Project of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (NGGL) at Kenyasi in Asutifi District, on Tuesday appealed to the management to review the rate for crops paid to them as compensation.
They said management should fulfil the promise made to the community to engage most of the youth to work at the mine to help ensure the reduction of poverty in the area.
Nana Eric Antwi, Chairman of Ntotroso Community Sustainable Development Committee, made the appeal on behalf of the farmers in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Ntotroso.
He said though the Ahafo Mine had excelled in the execution of its social responsibility programmes, the current rate for crops was not the best and needed an urgent review.
Nana Antwi, who is also the Nkosuohene of Ntotroso, said compensation paid for an acre of a cocoa farm pegged at GHȼ3,000 for the past seven years needed to be reviewed.
He said this after the community had organized a clean-up exercise and fun games as part of activities towards the fifth anniversary celebration of Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF) in the area.
Over 300 people participated in the four-hour clean up exercise and weeded and cleared bushy areas, desilted choked gutters and picked plastic waste to rid the community of filth.
Part of the activities included a football gala, draught, oware and a sack race.
Nana Antwi explained that though the Foundation had assisted some of the youth in the community to acquire employable skills such as driving, hairdressing, dressmaking and tailoring, unemployment still high in the area.
He expressed appreciation to the contribution of NGGL made through NADeF and for the execution of its community development besides the provision of financial assistance estimated at about GHȼ48,000 to 174 small scale businesses.
Nana Antwi said 600 students in Senior High Schools and various tertiary institutions had also obtained scholarships.
He said under the Foundation a number of structures including six unit classroom blocks had been built for the local Methodist Primary and Junior High School, two water closet toilets structures, two mechanized boreholes as well as a teachers’ quarters at Yawusukrom, a satellite village, had been completed
Source: GNA