Mr Kojo Frempong said, “The research is pretty conclusive, the more you invest in women in the sector, the more value is created for the sector as there is greater retention in the communities”. For us at MIIF, this WomCom scholarship scheme is a strategic investment that will inure to the benefit of the country as a whole and create more advocates for environmental, social and governance issues” said the Head of ESG at MIIF, Ms Sharon Addo.

Ghana is blessed with natural resources, but we have seen the dangers in other jurisdictions when there is policy failure and a lack of investment in the mining value delivery process. Mr Koranteng stressed that, resources are not infinite making it crucial to leverage the resources cleverly in a sustainable manner, this gives meaning to the fact that, resources do not develop a nation, brains do.

Scholarship Expansion

Though UMaT is the first university to administer the scholarship, MIIF plans to extend the opportunity to students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani in an expandable drive for the scholarship.

“We are modeling the WomCom scholarship scheme with UMaT. 100 female students will be selected every year. Some of the beneficiaries will be undergraduate while others will be involved in the postgraduate category. We have great expectations of the various cohorts for the next ten years. Once we see the success of the program we will replicate it in the other universities, I am deeply inspired by the saying of the great Ghanaian educationist, Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey who said; if you educate a woman, you educate a nation. Imagine the impact hundreds of qualified women engineers will have on the mining sub-sector only a few years after this program takes off”.

Framework Agreement With UMaT

The Women in Mining Communities Scholarship scheme (WomCom Scholarship) is part of a five-part collaboration framework between MIIF and UMaT. The other four areas of collaboration are; an annual thought leadership event dubbed the MIIF Speaker Series which is in its third year, The MIIF Technical Training and Jewellery Training Making Centre which will be completed in December 2024, a continuous training and technical assistance from UMaT to MIIF under which the University provides consultancy to MIIF and the proposed Ghana Mining Museum and Mining Research Center which is also supported by the Chamber of Mines and will be partly funded by MIIF.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adams has described the collaborative agreement between MIIF and UMaT as the foundational stone which clearly makes the partnership between academia and practicing institutions possible. “The structural relationship is firmly anchored on collaboration. MIIF is guided by the research from UmaT while the University also gets support from the Fund. An important area that bears out this collaboration is in the Small-Scale Mining Incubation Program (SSMIP) where MIIF intends to help formalize some small-scale mining firms by investing capital, installing a rigorous financial reporting and environmental compliance regime as well as an off-taker agreement for gold produced under the program.

Support of the Chamber of Mines

The Chamber of Mines has expressed its support for MIIF’s initiatives. Dr Sulemanu Koney, the CEO of the Chamber indicated that the MIIF / UMAT Collaboration and the scholarship scheme exemplifies what is possible for the sector if things are done well. A number of mining companies such as Atlantic Lithium which has discovered lithium in Ewoyaa and set to start production in 2025 have indicated their readiness to support the scholarship scheme when it takes off in October 2024.

About MIIF

MIIF was set up the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978) as amended to receive royalties from minerals accruing to government, invest those royalties to secure the future wealth of the country and also manage the equity interest of Ghana in large scale mining firms.

Founding on this three-pronged mandate of the Fund, MIIF has developed unique strategies for all 11 minerals that currently pay royalties to the government of Ghana. MIIF among other investments, has significant equity in Asante Gold Corporation, a Ghanaian, Canadian and Frankfurt listed Explanation and Mining company and is now the third largest shareholder globally in Atlantic Lithium, an Australian exploration company listed in the United Kingdom, and Australia and recently listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange which was in line with its agreement with MIIF.