Several officers at the Minerals Commission of Ghana have been transferred or reassigned to various regional and district offices across the country.

The move, according to Citi News sources at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, is aimed at ensuring efficiency at the Commission.

The shake-up is part of ongoing reforms to decentralize the licensing regime and enhance monitoring of mining operations.

The Commission is also hiring additional mining engineers to strengthen compliance with the health and safety rules of mining activities.

It has also embarked on a digitization exercise to streamline all of its data records and plans to transition to an entirely online system within the next three to six months. This will significantly reduce delays in the licensing process and will eliminate the paper application, with all clients expected to complete applications online.

Additionally, some employees are being trained in critical areas such as mineral economics, metal finance, ventilation, and geotechnical engineering to improve their skills and knowledge.

All these come at a time the government has renewed the fight against all forms of illegal mining to protect the country’s forest reserves and rivers.