The Board Chairman of the Mineral Income and Investment Fund, MIIF, Professor Douglas Boateng says Ghana’s position as the largest gold producer is worthless without visible development.
According to him, it is unacceptable that there is not much evidence in terms of development despite Ghana’s rich natural resources.
Professor Douglas Boateng made the assertion while speaking on industrialization and Supply Chain management at the University of Mines and Technology in Tarkwa.
“You can have fantastic economic growth numbers 5, 20, 30%, but not necessarily achieve economic development. And this is what has happened to our beloved continent. They keep on telling us that we are achieving fantastic growth based on what– the exportation of our commodities, and then 15 years down the line, what do we have to show for all this? Is it the roads in Tarkwa? And we have to find a way of doing better than that. And that is where supply chain management comes in,” he noted.
Vice Chancellor of UMaT, re-emphasizing the state of Ghana’s underdevelopment, said the country can achieve accelerated development by value addition through industrialisation with collaboration with higher educational institutions.
“If the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda is to come to pass, it will ride on the path of industrialization. And we as a university would want to push an agenda in that direction, without question, industrialization and local value addition is the way forward for Ghana. And we at UMAT intend to build the world-class human capital that will make this possible and to support this agenda of Ghana beyond aid,” he said.
The Chief Executive of Minerals Income Investment Fund, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, while stating MIIF’s intention to become the largest mineral investment fund in Africa and also ensure investment in small scale mining, emphasized the need for sectoral collaboration and human resource development.
Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng pledged to sustain the annual Speaker Series.
The maiden UMaT-MIIF was organised by Distinguished Speaker Series under the auspices of UMaT Faculty of Engineering.