Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has criticised the NDC administration for what he calls a policy shift that indirectly supports illegal mining, arguing that empowering the Gold Board (Goldbod) to purchase gold from small-scale miners amounts to state-backed financing of galamsey.
Speaking during the debate on the 2026 Budget in Parliament on Thursday, November 27, Afenyo-Markin said the government’s latest approach signals an abandonment of the fight against illegal mining.
“This government has surrendered to the galamsey activities. This government has become its enabler,” he charged.
He insisted that allowing the Gold Board to buy gold from small-scale miners contradicts the government’s stated commitment to ending galamsey, claiming the policy provides legitimacy to unregulated mining activities.
“In this budget, the government announced the Gold Board to purchase gold from small-scale miners. They are not fighting illegal mining.
The NDC government, through the Gold Board, is rather financing it. This is giving it state endorsement,” he argued.
Turning to the human cost, Afenyo-Markin pointed out that anti-galamsey personnel, including members of NAIMOS, continue to lose their lives while the government’s policy direction weakens enforcement efforts.
He referenced the eight individuals who died while travelling to the launch of a programme aimed at combating illegal mining.
“Today, members of NAIMOS are getting hurt, dead, shot at in a fight their own government has abandoned. Eight lives were lost on their way to launch a programme to fight illegal mining,” he said.
The Minority Leader further accused the government of lacking seriousness and accountability in addressing illegal mining.
He contended that buying gold that cannot be traced to verified miners only deepens the problem.
“Today, their own government is demonstrating neither the seriousness nor commitment necessary to defeat it. Instead, it has set up a Gold Board to buy gold it cannot trace, miners it cannot verify, in a system designed for complicity rather than enforcement. If this government cannot trace the gold, it must not buy the gold,” he stressed.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
