The Co-Chair of the Gha­na Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), Dr Steve Manteaw, has proposed that citizens must en­sure that revenues from extractive resources are safeguarded against official and industry abuses.

He underscored the need for Ghanaians to ensure that district assemblies found creative and innovative ways of channeling the revenues into capital investment and not for social investments.

He said revenues from mining, oil and gas business should create enormous potentials for local eco­nomic development, but, argued, "Development will happen only when the citizens are active." Dr Manteaw advocated the radical change in resource gover­nance at a dissemination semi­nar on Monday at Beyin in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region to discuss the GHEITI 2021/2022 mining, oil and gas reports and the maiden 2020 Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) report.

Participants were District Chief Executives, Coordinating Directors, Civil Society Organi­sations (CSOs), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Mineral Commission.