"Stop Galamsey and Make a Meaningful Living" - Ms Naana Eyiah Rebukes

The involvement of women in the galamsey trade has been huge in the Western, Western North and Central regions, which has called for the service of Ms Naana Eyiah, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Mines to interact with residents to halt the galamsey trade.

The Minister is on a week sensitization tour of mining which form part of the roll out of the second phase of government's alternate livelihood programme for women and girls in the regions.

According to her, women should take advantage of government’s programmes in the mining communities to better their life and family’s whiles she counseled Girl’s affected by teenage pregnancy and financial challenges to hook up to government’s agenda to get back to school.

“We know that women and children are the most affected by illegal mining so we want to support you to acquire skills in soap making, tailoring and other small-scale businesses so that you will stop galamsey and make a meaningful living for yourselves.

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“We will also support all girls who dropped out of school because of teenage pregnancy and financial challenges to get back to school and achieve their dreams instead of engaging in galamsey,” she said.

The Deputy Minister paid a visit to the Chirano Mines Ghana Limited (CMGL) located at Sefwi Wiawso.

She urged the firm to prioritize employment and the building of the capacity of women to play key roles in the sector on the basis that women and children are the most affected by mining activities therefore leaving them behind in terms of employment is inappropriate.

The CMGL, currently has a work force of more than 2,070 people. 1020 are permanent employees with 17 per cent females, while males constitute 83 per cent.

She commended the Mining firm for their brilliant statistics on employment and pressed on the numbers of women employees to be improved.

"I am highly impressed by what I have seen here and will definitely take the message to the sector minister. However, I want you to improve on the percentage of women employees to about 40 per cent because that is how we can have inclusive development," she said.