Govt moves to track excavator imports

04-04-2025

Govt moves to track excavator imports

The government has commenced processes to track the importation and use of excavators in the country.

The initiative, which forms part of measures being deployed to fight illegal mining, will involve trained enforcement officers at the port to tag and track all excavators being brought into the country.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, explained to the Daily Graphic that the ministry was rolling out the system in collaboration with relevant state agencies, including the Ministry of Transport, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Minerals Commission and the Forestry Commission.

“The personnel are currently going through the recruitment process, including screening and shortlisting. The recruitment process is expected to be completed by the end of April 2025,” he said.

Mr Buah further explained that apart from tagging excavators being imported, all such equipment already in the country would be tagged by a dedicated team spearheaded by the Minerals Commission.

“So, we will have two teams working on this initiative. One will be deployed at the ports to tag the machinery coming in, while the other team will commence tagging already existing excavators in the country, starting from Accra,” he said.

Mr Buah said the team that would be tagging already existing excavators would be accompanied by the police and military hired by the Minerals Commission.

He added that apart from tagging the excavators, trackers would be installed on the machines to ensure that those allocated for mining stayed within the designated concession areas.

The minister added that as part of the government’s resolve to deploy modern technology to facilitate the fight against galamsey, all legal small-scale mining concessions had been geo-fenced, while the coordinates of the site plans of each concession had been integrated into the Ghana Mine Repository and Tracking software at the Minerals Commission.

Mr Buah explained that the software paired each excavator to a licensed small-scale concession at a time, with 15 metres buffer around each concession.

“Within the buffer zone, the excavator operator is prompted by a beeping sound indicating that even though he is within his working area, he is about to leave his concession area, and he should return to his concession. If he continues and moves out of the defined buffer of the concession, the excavator is immediately immobilised remotely,” he said.

He added that once a tracker was installed on an excavator, a sticker bearing the telephone number to the control room was affixed on the excavator.

“This sticker also identifies the excavator as being tracked and have fulfilled its required obligation,” he said. 

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