The Ghana Chamber of Mines has urged local companies to reposition themselves to become major players in the provision of mine support services in the West African sub-region.

Mr Sulemanu Koney, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, who made the call, said the move would enable local companies and entrepreneurs to benefit from the many opportunities and investments in the mining sector, especially in the West African sub-region.

He said, "A lot of opportunities and investment were coming into the mining sector in the West African sub-region in the areas of exploration.

"So, we are looking at all these trends and we continue to work with local entrepreneurs to be able to see the bigger picture. Ghana should be the bedrock, the springboard for these companies to move out of Ghana to West Africa to compete."

He gave the advice when he paid a courtesy call on Ya-Na Abukari (II), Overlord of Dagbon at the Gbewaa Palace at Yendi to brief him about developments in the mining sector in the country and to recognise his efforts at ensuring peace in the Northern Region.

Mr Koney said the Ghana Chamber of Mines was working to ensure that local mine support services companies remained competitive to sustainably compete in the West African sub-region.

He said, "We have recently worked with the Ghana Standards Authority to come out with standards for electrical cables going into the mining industry. We intend doing something similar on grinding media which is a major input for the mining industry."

He said, "All of these we do to ensure that we have that capacity in-house because if that capacity is not there, then our desire to be the hub for mine support services in West Africa will come to nought. Let's make sure that we use the mining industry as an opportunity to grow the mining support services companies.

If we are sure that we can supply to these multinational companies in our own country, then we can be confident that they can be competitive when they go out there."

He emphasised that "It is important that we use our mining industry as a backbone to create capacity for our local mine support services companies so that they can compete sustainably in West Africa."

Mr Koney said, "So, that is our desire, and we have programmes and arrangements to support our brothers and sisters to do this. We have, for example, decided that we are going to put some money behind this. It will be well over US$200,000.00 trying to get consultants to conduct a study into the various mine support service segments, how can we identify the major players, how can we give them the capacity, how can we assess them and bridge the competences gap such that we can bring them to the highest level so that they can be competitive on a sustainable basis."

Meanwhile, the Ghana Chamber of Mines donated a cheque for GHc20,000.00 to the Ya-NA Education Trust Fund to support education in the Dagbon Kingdom.

Ya-Na Abukari (II) commended the Ghana Chamber of Mines for supporting his Education Trust Fund to ensure access to education for all at all levels.

He also welcomed all support towards peace in the Dagbon Traditional Area to ensure that the area contributed to the development of the country.