Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, has kicked against calls for mining royalties to be used to fund reclamation of lands destroyed by illegal mining.
He says the polluter pay principle must be applied instead, arguing that large-scale mines that pay royalties already post bonds and undertake reclamation while those engaged in illegality pay nothing.
Dr. Ashigbey made the call on TV3’s Ghana Tonight on Monday, September 7, 2026, reacting to disclosures made by the Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George.
Mr George had disclosed during a Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House on Monday that galamsey activities account for about 25 per cent of fibre cuts recorded across the country.
According to him, Ghana has recorded more than 8,000 fibre cuts in 2026 alone, with repair costs exceeding US$20 million, a situation he said is affecting telecommunications service quality.
“How long would we allow this criminal element to continue to destroy our country? We’ve heard today Prof. Frimpong Boateng talking about some billions that we require to be able to deal with the issues of reclamation. Unfortunately I disagree with him saying we should use part of royalties. Why should we use royalties?” he asked.
Dr. Ashigbey explained that “the large-scale mines pay the royalties. Even for them, they post bonds, they do reclamation so the artisanal and small-scale miners who do not pay any royalties and those who are doing illegality, we cannot use monies paid that should be going to help our communities to go and be repairing the damage that people do. We need to ensure that the polluter pay principle is applied.”
He said illegal miners are now destroying critical telecommunications infrastructure, a situation that must be tackled before things get out of hand.
“They are coming at the heart of telecommunications and so it’s not surprising that recently we get all these poor service qualities. Again it’s just because of the fact that these illegal miners are destroying fibres that have been laid that is supposed to provide telecommunication infrastructure,” he added.
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