Players in the oil and gas sector comprising Traditional Authorities, Members of Parliament, Representatives of Government Agencies, Development Partners, Civil Society Organisations, Gender- Based Organisations, Community-Based Organisations and the Private Sector have issued a communique at the end of a two- day stakeholder convention in the oil and gas sector.

The Executive of Mining, Energy and Infrastructure Finance at Stanbic Bank Ghana, Ms Celiwe Ntuli has reiterated the Banks support for the extractive industry in the face of global challenges facing the sector. Gold prices on the world market have been on the decline leading to a slowdown in mining activities and staff layoffs among other challenges globally.

The Minerals Commission of Ghana has been urged to supervise the activities of small and large scale miners, whose work poses economic problems for the people living in their operational communities. Mr. Alfred Ekow Gyan, Western Regional Deputy Minister, who made the appeal, said some of the miners only had either exploratory or prospecting licenses, yet they were doing real mining at the expense of local farmers, whose farmlands are being destroyed by their activities.

The Ghana EITI will meet major Forestry Sector stakeholders, i.e. Company Reps. and MDAs at Royal Lamerta Hotel Kumasi on 11th - 13th December to sensitize them on the extension of the EITI to the Forestry Sector.

The Ghana EITI in collaboration with the German International Co-operation (GIZ) are organizing EITI sensitization and dissemination workshop for members of the Parliamentary Select Committees of Mines and Energy, Finance and Public Accounts from 8th –10th  November, 2013  at the Elmina Beach Resort, Central Region.

The objective of the two- day workshop is to sensitize members of the Select Committees of Mines and Energy, Public Accounts and Finance on the activities of the Ghana EITI and to share with them, the critical findings and recommendations of the Ghana EITI Aggregation and Reconciliation Reports for mining and oil and gas for the periods 2010/2011 and also discuss the draft GHEITI Bill.

In spite of the falling price of on the world market and their challenges facing mining companies operating in Ghana, the managements of three mining companies have promised not to lay off workers, intending to find tore practical solutions to the problem. The companies are Golden Star Bogoso/Prestea Limited, Goldfields Ghana Limited and Ghana Manganese Company (GMC).

A civil society organisation (CSO) has called on Members of Parliament (MPs) to take bold and serious steps to ensure that all mining contracts that come before them are thoroughly scrutinised to avert loss of revenues to Ghana that hurts the national interest. According to the CSO, the country has lost huge potential revenues that could have boosted the cash-starved economy due to Parliament's approval of bad mining agreements that government had signed with mining companies.

SERIOUS environmental human rights issues are currently being raised on the African Mining Vision (AMV) that was adopted by the African Union (AU) in 2009. Environmental rights advocacy groups being galvanized by Environmental Rights Action (ERA), a foremost environmental rights group in Nigeria, believes that the AMV that was adopted by AU to provide guidance on how extractive sector-mining must be managed in the continent only favours foreign investors to the detriment of the African people, and does not address critical livelihood concerns of local artisans.

Mining companies operating in Ghana have petitioned Parliament in an attempt to get the House to take a second look at what they describe as “gargantuan” ground rent imposed on them by the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands (OASL). The companies argue that the decision to upwardly review the ground rent was taken by the OASL without consultation with the mining industry hence the difficulty in accepting the new rates.

The queen-mother of Wassa Dawurampong in the Wassa Amenfi East District of the Western Region, Nana Akua Ampomaa II, has appealed to government to as a matter of urgency, construct bore-holes in the area to serve as alternative water sources for the people.