Dr. Kojo Busia

Mining stakeholders have faulted revenue collection in the mining sector, saying it lacks transparency on part of the mining companies hence hindering the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) process.

The stakeholders on Tuesday said lack of transparency on revenues generated by mining companies has resulted in lack of mutual accountability between states and the companies, thus major progress of the mining sector has failed to translate into community development.

“Governments and mining companies should announce revenues attained from the mining sector to help the APRM monitor community development,” said Dr Kojo Busia while presenting a paper on APRM lessons learned and main challenges during the 16th meeting of Regional Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE).

Mr Godber Tumushabe, a participant from Uganda, said most of the African countries endowed with minerals were facing the challenge of good governance and varying degrees of secrecy on mining revenues. In his remarks, Deputy Minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr Adam Malima, said there is an immediate need for mining contracts to be reviewed to force mining companies to contribute more to community development.

“Mining companies should not only boast of investing a lot of money yet surrounding communities lack social services like schools and clean water,” said the deputy minister. Uganda’s State Minister for Finance in charge of Planning, Mr Matia Kasaija, hailed the introduction of APRM as the programme brings together African countries to share information and experiences on success stories.

He, however, cautioned that many African countries are still lacking local mining experts hence the current dependence on foreign countries. Ms Rehema Twalib, the country’s APRM Executive Director, said that the main challenge facing APRM is to be able to examine mining progress in relation to the community development.

APRM is a mechanism voluntarily agreed upon by African states themselves to monitor progress in governance and good practices in four thematic areas, namely democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, corporate governance and socio-economic governance.

By LUDOVICK KAZOKA, Tanzania Daily News

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