The best thing to explore this time is natural resources. The continent of Africa has untapped natural resources that could drop the jaws of those colonizers in the past. On the other hand, African countries have not used their natural blessings to pave the way to freedom from the shackles of poverty.
In the past few years, things in Ethiopia have been changed in the ways that promote development and success. The country has been scoring tangible progresses towards manufacturing and export. It is this year that the country has registered one billion USD revenue from coffee export. Not only that, the nation is trying its best to promote industrialization and increase the quality and quantity of production and productivity.
It is the fact that the country has immense natural resources, and this time the government has been excavating those natural resources and uses them to build the nation’s economy. The Ministry of Mines, in this regard, is taking the responsibility to make things more favorable to those who want to work in the mining sector. A number of actions have been taken to make the sector competitive in the international markets holding better quality and quantity. Licensing investors and creating better environment for them are some of the actions taken by the Ministry.
While presenting the Ministry’s 11 months performance report of this fiscal year recently, Minister of Mines, Takele Uma mentioned some of the major achievements registered by his office. According to the Minister, the government of Ethiopia has exerted its utmost effort to make the mining investment competitive internationally. The Minister said that licenses that have been given by the Ministry incorporate other advantages like financial, technical and professional supports.
It is important to remember that there are investors who wish to use those advantages they got from their licenses and vanish without any trace. Takele said that the above mentioned incentives and advantages are encouraging for those who dedicate their assets to invest in the sector. The Minister said on the other side, “These provisions are not for those who have used shortcut to success creating their own advantages via abusing the nation’s property.”
There are multiple of achievements in the mining industry in the current fiscal year. Minerals have been produced in quality and quantity and by type. As a result, Ethiopia earned 513.9 million USD only from its gold production during the past 11 months, the Minister noted. By making field assessment on the progress of other mining companies, the Ministry found out some constraints regarding their production, Takele highlighted.
As to the Minister, while taking the filed assessment in the mining sector, there are companies found striving to bring success and revenue to the nation. On the contrary, there are companies and individuals that chose the illegal way to use the mining resources for the sake of their own benefits.
As a responsible government organ, any government institution is mandated to take actions to achieve success. Similarly, the Minister disclosed that his office has passed a decision on those investors who took the license, signed an agreement, and submitted work proposals but have not accomplished accordingly as per their schedule. The decision was made based on the legal and administrative process. There was also a meeting with responsible stakeholders to decide on the matter. In addition, decision was also made to cancel the license of those companies that have participated in acts that hurt national interest of the country, the Minister mentioned.
Likewise, the Minister explained that from those 972 companies which their license canceled, 850 of them are companies who are working in mining industry other than gold. Takele also expressed the deeds of the aforementioned companies with void licenses. Though these companies had the certificate of qualification and the permit to export minerals, they failed to use their advantage legally; rather, they have used the license as a cover to practice contraband and illegal trade of minerals. These acts are revealed during the field assessment.
According to the Minister, the illegal practices committed by these companies under their legal licenses made the country lose its revenue from mineral exchange. These companies used the government’s license to satisfy their greedy interest via hitting individual advantages. Moreover, 116 companies with mining licenses have been canceled because they have not done their job as per expected of them.
Such decisions were not made over night; rather, various steps have been taken to come to the final point. Takele further mentioned the steps taken by his Ministry to execute the decision. He said that the companies whose licenses become void were informed in many mechanisms. Though informed in advance to make corrective measures, the companies continued acting illegally instead of carrying out their duties according to the agreement they reached on with the government.
The government had provided necessary assistance to the companies earlier taking in to account their level to minimize the risk, but they failed to meet the target registering less progress. Consequently, the companies have received warning letters; however, they intentionally ignored the alarm and kept on doing their illegal activities. For that matter, the government and people of Ethiopia have not gained any economic and social benefits they deserve, the Minister revealed.
In addition to the above facts, the Minister added that there are 6 more licenses that were revoked because the companies have not done what they had to do.
These types of illegal activities definitely bring unwanted consequences to the nation. Takele mentioned that those under achiever companies coerced the country to import mineral industry inputs spending high foreign exchange. This is due to those companies that have not achieved their plans even though they received different supports from the responsible bodies, the Minister reaffirmed.
The Minister added that these actions will be continued to regional states after assessing the legal procedures and reviewing the licenses. The minister further stated that it is decided to execute better decisions.
To wrap up the above mentioned ideas, it is important to act against the issues that hurt the nation’s interest. Illegal practices must be identified and the responsible body should take critical actions to teach others. Actions taken by the Ministry of Mines could be a lesson for other institutions. As it is said earlier, the country should be benefited from its natural resources, and these resources must be exploited effectively as they can bring appropriate revenue to the country, it was learned.
BY DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
The Ethiopian Herald 28 June 2022
