ANGLOGOLD SUPPORT COMMUNITY

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Eduapriem
AgloGold-Ashanti, Eduapriem mines have presented farm inputs worth GHC40, 000 to more than 2,700 farmers in eight communities in its operational areas in the Western Region.
The move formed part of their quest to introduce the communities to alternative means of deriving incomes and to help the beneficiaries to improve on their produce such as oil palm, vegetables and animal husbandry projects and fish farming.
The items presented included 7,500 improved oil palm seedlings, vegetable and maize seedlings, fertilizers, Wellington boots, wheat bran, high pressure knapsack spraying machines, weedicides, pesticides, watering cans and hundreds of machetes.
According to the Managing Director of the company, Mr David Kwesi Renner, at present, the company had invested more than $2 million in its alternative livelihood programme called Hand-In-Hand since its inception in 2004.
He said under the programme many people have benefited directly from the programme and had rippled positively on about 500 households in the communities.
The managing director said the focus of the company was to create and share with their host communities to ensure that life was left better than the way they came to meet it.
To foster good socio-corporate-economic relationship with the people of its catchment areas, he said Anglo-Gold Ashanti had been in constant touch with the people to think through the social problems and formulate solutions together.
Mr Renner said education continue to be their focus which led to the improvement in the MD’-Scholarship and to also motivate teachers by the creation of better environment for both pupils and teachers to triumph.
He said in the area of palm fruit, the company had introduce farmers under that aspect of the programme to value addition, which had caught up well with communities such as Adieyie and Teberebie after the provision of processing plant for the communities.
The managing director said, when the project started, they engaged the expertise of a non-governmental organisation, but “at the moment we are collaborating with government agency such as Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) with the expertise to ensure that the farmers derived the maximum benefit.”
“So far MOFA has been assisting to improve farming methods and has introduce high yielding seed maize for about 90 community farmers,” he said.
On the benefits of these interventions, Mr Renner said, it was expected that if the processes were followed with the help of MOFA officials, income to these 90 farmers should rake in about GHC27, 000 into their local economy within a short period.
The way forward for the company and the community was to ensure that fish farming, micro-credit was upgraded and also the focuses on value addition of other farm produce and increase youth apprenticeship.
The Tarkwa Municipal Chief Executive, Mrs Christina urged those had benefited from the company’s programme to impact positively on their communities.
She said micro-credit under the project, those who had contracted such monies should ensure that, they paid for others to also benefit.