The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) is establishing an intergovernmental task force to tackle rampant encroachment on quarry concessions, its chief executive announced after the fund’s first field inspection of the year at sites in the Greater Accra Region.
MIIF Acting Chief Executive Officer Justina Nelson led the delegation on February 25 to Regimanuel Concrete Products Limited at Ablekuma and to Eastern Quarries Limited and Massey Stone Ghana Limited, both at Shai Hills. The visits were designed to give the fund’s leadership direct insight into operational performance, regulatory compliance, and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices at the sites.
Nelson said the proposed task force, working in partnership with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Minerals Commission, will intensify field monitoring, strengthen enforcement, and hold regular stakeholder meetings with local authorities to curb encroachment on legally acquired quarry concessions. She described protecting quarry investments as critical to safeguarding government revenue and sustaining the country’s infrastructure drive.
The urgency behind the initiative became clear during the site visits. Isaac Attah, Head of Operations at Regimanuel Concrete Products Limited, said encroachment had shrunk the company’s operational buffer from a 500-metre radius to just 100 metres, crippling its ability to operate safely. Quarry industry chairperson Ebenezer Mireku warned that the problem was widespread across the southern belt of the country, covering the Ashanti, Volta, Eastern, Greater Accra, Western and Central regions, and that it threatened both human safety and the long-term survival of the sector.
Nelson also signalled a broader shift in MIIF’s oversight strategy, saying the fund is expanding its focus well beyond large-scale gold mining to track royalties from quarries, sand winning, graphite and other critical minerals more rigorously. She urged operators to deepen their corporate social responsibility work within host communities, arguing that sustained engagement with traditional leaders and residents would help ease tensions around concession boundaries.
Chief Technical Officer Kwabena Barning said collaboration between MIIF and the quarry association had been productive and that understanding operator challenges allowed the fund to advocate more effectively at the policy level. “When we understand your challenges, we are able to bring the issues forward during stakeholder engagements,” he said.
Officials of the Commercial Quarry Operators Association, including chairman Ebenezer Mireku and secretary Georgina Dziwornu, participated in the engagements, providing operators with a direct channel to raise their concerns with the fund.
