Mr Augustine Niber, Executive Director of the Centre for Public Interest Law, who made the call, said the country's legal framework on mining offered less protection for communities impacted by mining, as well as failed to provide them with a greater say in the decision-making process leading to the award of mining concessions.

Mr Niber said this often fuels misunderstanding and antagonism between the communities and mining companies especially when the latter fails to adequately address the concerns of the communities regarding the impact of mining operations.

He was speaking at a multi-stakeholder dialogue on the impact of natural resource extraction and taxation on inequality organised in Tamale by the Friends of the Nation in partnership with NORSAAC with support from OXFAM in Ghana.

The event, attended by stakeholders drawn from the five regions in the north, was to contribute to shaping the national discourse on sustainable and feasible strategies to better allocate revenues from natural resources to address inequalities and poverty in line with the national development agenda and in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs10).

The event was preceded by a two-day training for the youth in the northern part of the country on the impact of natural resource extraction and taxation on inequality such that they would better appreciate the sector.

Mr Niber said there is the need to review the provisions of the mining law on fiscal benefits to ensure that the country got the greatest share of the revenues from the sector.

He also touched on environmental protection expressing need to strengthen the country's environmental laws particularly in the area of the use of cyanide in mining to help protect water bodies that served communities in mining areas.

Mr Mohammed Mahamud, Governance Lead at OXFAM in Ghana, who made a presentation on "State of Inequality in Ghana", said the country was spending a lot of resources on debt repayment, "Such that we are unable to pay for critical areas such as health, education and social protection, which are critical for addressing inequality".

Mr Mahamud said there is the need for the country "To reduce our debt levels so we can save some money to spend in areas of education, health and social protection to help address inequalities in the country".

He also called for efforts to maximize internal revenue generation whilst curbing corruption to ensure the availability of enough resources to fund critical development initiatives without necessarily going to borrow.

Mr Solomon Kusi Ampofo, Programme Coordinator of Friends of the Nation, said "Although the Minerals Development Fund Act and Minerals Income Investment Act have been passed by Parliament, these could be consolidated into a Minerals Revenue Management Act to provide a transparent and accountable framework for managing our mineral revenues".

Participants called for transparency in the award of mining contracts and revenue expenditure from the sector as well as protection of rights of members of mining communities to improve the sector.