The absence of technical and technological partnerships between government and industry hinders opportunities for local firms to access opportunities in the mining supply chain.

According artisans at the Suame light industrial area in Kumasi, the mining companies are unable to patronize local products and services due to issues of standardization.

A World Bank report released on Monday says mining companies can boost economic growth in West Africa by purchasing more equipment, supplies and services from local companies. It focuses on Ghana, Guinea and Senegal.

The study titled “Increasing Local Procurement by the Mining Industry in West Africa” shows that raising the share of local procurement by mining companies would spread the benefits of mining more evenly across a country’s economy, creating jobs and stimulating the sustainable development of local enterprises.

World Bank’s Vice President for the Africa region, Obiageli Ezekwesili, said buying local goods and services is a catalyst for private sector development and sustainable growth.

The report recommends that West African governments work with mining companies, suppliers, and civil society to strengthen definitions and indicators for measuring local procurement. It also tasks mining companies to develop and implement local procurement plans.

But George Amankwah, President of the Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organization (SMIDO), say the low production capacity of local industries must first be addressed if they are to seize local procurement opportunities.

“These people [mining companies], they cannot buy just anything from your end unless it is well tested…. If not except we buy the finished products from say Britain, Germany, China and then supply to them, but to manufacture it here I don’t think it’s easy”, he observed.

Players in Ghana’s mining sector, a couple of years ago, responded positively to a business advocacy by artisans at the Suame cluster by awarding engineering sub-contracts worth thousands of Ghana Cedis for the artisans to supply and fix spare parts of heavy-duty vehicles.

The mutually beneficial partnership was to integrate local technologies in mining and reduce the cost of importing engineering parts by the mining companies.

This could not be sustained because, according to Mr. Amankwaah, “our main challenge is that we don’t have industrial machines…for example industrial fanon, which one can use to mould or design spare parts”.

He noted that inspite of their expertise the local firms cannot access funding from the commercial banks nor support from the government to purchase the requisite industrial machinery for production.

Mr. Amankwah has therefore asked the World Bank to play a lead role in joint-venture partnerships to build local capacity in manufacturing spare parts and other industrial materials.

“We want them to come to our aid by sitting down with us, listen to our needs and see how best they can get us such machines for us to work with. If that happens we can produce and even create market for ourselves and even beyond Ghana”, the SMIDO President told Luv Fm.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh