In the event that he is elected president, New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has promised to turn small-scale miners into millionaires.

As part of his nationwide tour, the vice president spoke to a group of small-scale miners in the Western Region and laid out his plans to transform the mining industry for the benefit of regional miners.

In order to generate jobs and wealth for citizens, he placed a strong emphasis on the creation of community mining schemes in shuttered shafts and the exploration of new mining locations.

“We will talk to the big mining companies; abandoned shafts, we will open them as community mining schemes for our people, and the new places that we will discover, we will open them. We will create jobs for our people, we will make you millionaires and we will make you rich, that is what we are going to do,” he declared.

Some small-scale miners, though, are skeptical of the promise.

Bawumia’s vow was written off as political rhetoric by Small-Scale Miners Association President Michael Kojo Peprah.

He brought up the difficulties small-scale miners are facing under the current administration, citing the contentious Operation Vanguard and a one-year ban on their industry.

“I think he is just trying to lie to us. We became very poor when his government came into power. That was when they placed a one-year ban on our sector. We were in this country when the government started burning excavators when they brought about this operation Vanguard.

“He was the vice president. Joe Osei Owusu told us in this country to shoot to kill small-scale miners. He never did or said anything to console us. We were here when excavators flew from Ghana into our neighbouring countries, he never said anything.

“So if you have about eight months to redeem whatever your government has done and you’ve not been able to do it, and you come back to tell us that you want to make us millionaires then we take what he said as a joke.”