Forest Invasion: Companies owned by Wontumi, Kumasi mayor & others scramble to mine in Ghana’s forest reserves

When the government on June 9, 2023, rallied Ghanaians to plant trees as part of the Greening Ghana campaign, the Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Sam Pyne, was one of the leading political figures in the Ashanti Region who actively participated in the tree-planting event.

“This exercise is vital for beautifying, protecting, and ensuring environmental sustainability,” Mr Pyne told the Ghana News Agency.

However, an investigation by The Fourth Estate into a worrying scramble for mining concessions in forest reserves has revealed an interesting irony on the part of Mr. Pyne: while advocating for the public to promote environmental sustainability through tree planting, his company is involved in a business that threatens the existence of a forest reserve.

Records from the Minerals Commission reveal that just four months before nudging others to help make Ghana green, Mr Pyne’s company applied for a lease to mine for gold in the Oda River Forest Reserve, located in the Ashanti Region.

This area, like many others, is already reeling from the devastating effects of illegal mining, including the destruction of forest reserves, farmlands, and road networks.

Records at the Minerals Commission show that the company, Sam & Gyan Limited, applied for the mining license in February 2023, months after the government enacted the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulation in November 2022. Known as LI 2462, the law lists some designated green belts as protected areas, including Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs), which are safeguarded by international conventions. This should make them a no-go area for mining and timber harvesting.

However, under the law, the President has the authority to allow mining and prospecting in these forest reserves if he deems it necessary in the national interest. Records from the Minerals Commission indicate that there was a surge in applications for mining concessions in the forest reserves from June 2022, when the LI was presented to Parliament.

There are media reports, corroborated by satellite imagery, that show the hefty environmental damage caused by mining in Ghana’s forest reserves, where some lush rainforests have been turned into toxic and barren wastelands. It is against this backdrop that the new law has sparked outrage among environmental activists who warn that it could obliterate what remains of the country’s forest reserves, already severely damaged by illegal mining and logging.

Activists warn that by authorizing companies like Sam and Gyan Limited to mine in forest reserves, LI 2462 will only worsen the environmental damage caused by illegal mining in the country.

An environmental lawyer, specialising in forestry regulation, Clement Akapame, points out that the basis for the passage of LI2462 is questionable, because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which championed its passage, has no mandate to push for a law that regulates mining in forest reserves.

“Our first point is the lack of legislative capacity,” Mr. Akapame says. “Even if there’s going to be something like this, we think the lead agency should be the Forestry Commission [which] has the primary mandate to regulate and manage our forest estate.”

The irony, however, is that in 2019, an internal EPA memo raised concerns about the “upsurge in the number of forest entry permits” being issued by the Forestry Commission.

“In view of the environmental sensitivity of these forest reserves, and in the light of illegal full-scale mining operations being clandestinely undertaken in some forest reserves under the guise of prospecting, it is critical, that the agency, carefully considers this phenomenon to shape its decision on this issue,” the memo, written by the then chief programme officer, Justine Dzadzra, said after the Forestry Commission had issued 47 forest entry permits within a year.

Three years after the memo raised the alarm, the EPA was pushing for the passage of LI 2462, which appears to have attracted even more interest in mining in Ghana’s forest reserves. The Fourth Estate investigations revealed that as of August 13, 2024, at least 25 companies had filed 32 applications to mine and prospect in 24 forest reserves.

A number of these companies are owned by politicians from the governing New Patriotic Party. It appears most of these companies had anticipated that the law would be passed and were already preparing themselves and angling for concessions to mine for mineral resources ahead of its passage. The Fourth Estate’s investigations show that Mr Pyne, a former Ashanti regional secretary of the NPP, is a joint shareholder and beneficial owner of Sam and Gyan Limited, incorporated in 2017. He owns this company with Ohene Amankwah Gyan, a Kumasi-based radio presenter, who is also the lawyer for the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation.

Sam and Gyan Mining Limited has a mining lease in the Oda Forest Reserve in the Ashanti Region until 2053. Other companies owned by people with serious political connections to the ruling NPP have either been granted concessions or are in the final stages of the approval processes.

Chairman Wontumi

Months before the government scrapped the guidelines that limited mining in forest reserves in November 2022, Akonta Mining Company Limited was actively felling trees and digging in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources declared the company’s operation illegal. The Office of the Special Prosecutor is currently investigating allegations of illegal mining against the company.

According to records at the ORC, the company has two shareholders, Bernard Boasiako, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, who is popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, and one Kwame Antwi.

Akonta Mining, which was registered in 2010 for mining and exploration applied to mine in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve (where it is already accused of mining illegally) on August 25, 2022. This was just a month after the LI 2462 was gazetted. The Minerals Commission has forwarded the company’s application to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for possible approval.

Without the regulatory permits, the company mined with impunity until investigations by Joy News’ Erastus Asare-Donkor exposed its destructive activities in the reserve. According to the Minerals Commission’s data, Chairman Wontumi currently has two other active mining leases in the Amenfi District. Apart from Akonta Mining, Wontumi also has a 50% shareholding in another mining company, Akosdwomo Mining Limited, which has several mining and prospecting leases in the Minerals Commission database.

The middle man

A very intriguing character in the frenzy for permits to mine in forest reserves is Francis Owusu-Akyaw, the NPP’s 2024 Parliamentary candidate for the Juaben Constituency in the Ashanti Region. Mr Owusu-Akyaw, The Fourth Estate established, was part of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Small-Scale Mining which President Akufo-Addo set up to crack down on illegal mining and propose reforms for the small-scale mining sector.

The then Secretary to the Committee, Charles Bissue, confirmed to The Fourth Estate that he was sacked from the committee. This was because he (Owusu-Akyaw) had allegedly suggested to him( Bissue ) that they could take advantage of their positions on the committee to get involved in small-scale mining.

A search through the Minerals Commission’s database revealed that Mr Owusu-Akyaw is the contact person for at least 15 mining companies.

Four of these companies — Sam and Gyan Limited (owned by Sam Pyne), Unipower Mining Company Limited, Hapic Mining Limited, and FJ Minerals Limited — have at least four leases to mine in forest reserves. Two others, Oleum Ghana Limited and Akonta Mining (owned by Chairman Wontumi), have applications pending with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

Mr Owusu-Akyaw himself owns two companies — DML Investment Limited and FJ Minerals Limited. DML’s website describes him as a director of the company and a mineral consultant. This company was listed in the highly-publicized and litigated will of the late former Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, alias Sir John. In his will, Sir John bequeathed some of the land he had acquired within the Achimota Forest to DML. He had been accused of amassing questionable wealth when his will became public after his death in July 2020.

DML is the company through which Mr Owusu-Akyaw provides consultancy services for mining companies. On its website, the company touts its connections to the top hierarchy of the Minerals Commission as a competitive advantage.

“We have established key relationships with upper management at the Ghana Minerals Commission. These relationships have been instrumental in securing and operating concessions in the country,” it says.

Our investigations revealed that Mr Owusu-Akyaw is a joint beneficial owner, shareholder, and director (with one Joyce Nyarku) of FJ Minerals Limited. The company was incorporated on June 3, 2022, the very month LI 2462 went to Parliament. The company applied for a concession in the Jimira and Jimira Extension Forest Reserves on November 9, 2022, two weeks before the LI became law, and obtained approval for a six-year mining lease, ending in 2029. FJ Minerals also put in an application in May 2023 to mine in the Tano Suraw Forest Reserve in Sefwi Wiawso in the Western North Region. Interestingly, another company, Kaboa Plux, which Mr Akyaw consults for, also applied for the same concession in July 2023. Both applications are under review.

Influential Chinese citizens

Another one of Mr Owusu-Akyaw’s clients is Unipower Mining Company Limited, which has two Chinese directors as shareholders – Liu Dingfeng and Liu Renxiu (named beneficial owner). The company was registered on August 22, 2019. From the ORC’s records, the company was registered to provide mining services.

A former Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission, Tony Aubyn, explained to The Fourth Estate that this categorization means that the company cannot own concessions of its own but, can be hired by concession owners as a service provider.

However, The Fourth Estate discovered that Unipower applied for mining leases in the forest reserves on November 25, 2022 – the day LI2462 came into force.  The company currently has two active mining leases. While one of these concessions is in the Boin Tano Forest Reserve in the Western Region, the other one is partially in the reserve by the Tano River. Seven other applications from Unipower are at various stages of consideration, the Minerals Commission’s database shows.

A family business  

Solomon Gozey, Ryan Gozey, and Cynthia Perpetual Agboada may not be well-known names, but their involvement in mining in forest reserves is attention-grabbing. In addition to their active concessions, the trio is actively seeking permits to mine in more forest reserves. Between them, they have registered at least five mining companies:

• Limespec Mining Limited and Hapic Mining Limited were incorporated just three days apart, on September 19, 2022, and September 22, 2022, respectively. This was two months before the new mining law came into effect.
• Rygo Excel Globe Mining Limited was registered on April 11, 2023, six months after LI 2462 came into being.
• Kapsord Mining Limited and Lotus Impact Limited (formerly Nana Ansah Resources) were registered on July 24, 2018, and August 10, 2020, respectively.

Together these companies have four active mining concessions in six forest reserves, including in the Neung South Forest Reserve, a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area in the Western Region. They also have two applications awaiting approval at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. To illustrate their influence, it is noteworthy that one of their companies, the Kingsperp Group, donated three salon cars to the Ghana Armed Forces in 2020 while an official of Kapsord Mining, David Yarquah (variously described as a “contact person”), built a 100-bed hostel for the Ghana Armed Forces at Michel Camp in 2022.

The DCE and organiser of NPP women

Essaman Mining Company Limited was registered as a mining company on July 3, 2024, with the ORC. Eight days later, the company’s application to prospect for gold in the 75-year-old Subri River Forest Reserve speedily moved from the Minerals Commission to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. The Subri River Forest Reserve is located in the Wassa East District of the Western Region. One of the four joint beneficial owners and shareholders of Essaman Mining Company Limited is the District Chief Executive of the Wassa East District, Emmanuel Boakye. In March 2024, Mr Boakye caused the arrest of a queenmother in his district over allegations of illegal mining. The other politician on the list of beneficial owners of the company is the NPP’s Deputy Western Regional Women Organiser, Angelina Bint Ntaama.

Similarities and seeming coincidences

The Fourth Estate also found that Oleum (GH) Limited (whose joint shareholders bear names similar to that of NPP’s aspiring MP for Nkoranza South, Harriet Kyeremanteng and Ghana’s Deputy Ambassador to Turkey, Faisal Ahmed Mairiga) is also interested in mining within a forest reserve. Ms Kyereremanteng is a presidential staffer and special aide to the Chief of Staff, Frema Osei Opare.

Incorporated on July 11, 2014, Oleum’s registration details showed that its principal businesses include oil and gas services and buying and selling of precious minerals. Mining is not one of their business objects. However, the company applied for a mining concession in the 90-year-old Bonsam Bepo Forest Reserve located at Akrodie in the Ahafo Region in December 2022, a month after LI 2462 was enacted. That application is also awaiting possible approval from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

Another noteworthy coincidence is the fact that on the very day LI 2462 came into force, two companies applied for permits to mine in forest reserves. One of them was Unipower, owned by two Chinese nationals who are clients of the NPP parliamentary candidate for Juaben, Francis Owusu-Akyaw.  On the same day, another company, Betterland Ghana Limited also applied for a lease to mine in the Draw River Forest Reserve, another GSBA. One application has been approved since May 10, 2023, and is to last till May 9, 2033. Betterland has another application, filed on December 23, 2023, awaiting ministerial approval.

Betterlands’s applications angered the environmental group, Ghana Environmental Advocacy, which raised concerns in a petition about the company’s application to mine in a greenbelt protected by international conventions. At the time in May 2024, the civil society organization observed that the Draw River Forest Reserve was one of the least already degraded forest reserves in Ghana and risked being completely destroyed if the company was allowed to mine in it, suggestions the company rejected.

Reactions

When The Fourth Estate reached the mayor of Kumasi for comment on whether he owned a company seeking to mine in the Oda Forest Reserve, he said he had done nothing wrong.

“I am a Ghanaian, I have a company, and I can apply for anything that I want. If I apply and they give it to me, what is your concern with that? What is it? Why this personalisation and victimization, bringing people down? What do you gain from that?” he said before dropping the call.

The DCE for Wassa East, Emmanuel Boakye, and the NPP’s deputy Western Regional Women Organiser, Angelina Bint Ntaama, denied registering any company to mine.

When The Fourth Estate informed the DCE that his tax identification number (TIN) is connected to the incorporation documents obtained from the ORC, where he is also listed as a shareholder and beneficial owner, his response was: “Ah! Is that so? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

When The Fourth Estate asked about his tax identification number, he said he was in a meeting and that the reporter should call back in an hour. He did not respond to subsequent calls and text messages.

Ms Ntaama, while denying her connection to the venture, also insisted that she was not involved in mining and therefore could not own a mining company. She claimed she did not know what a tax identification number was.

However, Mr Richmond Owusu, who is listed as the majority shareholder of Essaman Mining, confirmed that he incorporated the company. When informed about the DCE’s denial of owning any part of the company, he stated that the DCE did not know about the company. When asked how the DCE’s name appeared in the company’s profile as a shareholder and beneficial owner, he responded, “I will look into it.”

The Fourth Estate’s calls to Harriet Kyeremanteng were not responded to nor returned, but the Deputy Ghana Ambassador to Turkey, Faisal Ahmed Mairiga denied being a shareholder in any company in Ghana.

“I have no idea about what you’re talking about. I don’t do whatever you’re talking about” he said.

When The Fourth Estate asked if he knew Harriet Kyeremanteng, he chuckled and responded “Massa, go and look for whatever you’re looking for. I don’t know anybody.”

Solomon Gozey, who is the beneficial owner of multiple companies that have been awarded several concessions, did not respond to The Fourth Estate’s calls and whatsapp message.

Minerals Commission’s response

One of the requirements on the Minerals Commission’s website is for applicants for mining leases to indicate their political affiliation but none of the owners of the companies named in this story, including those belonging to politicians, have made these declarations.

Asked why it was necessary to indicate one’s political affiliation when applying for a mining lease, the Minerals Commission’s Chief Executive, Martin Ayisi, said “Sometimes it informs the kind of decisions you should make”. He was quick to point out, however, that politicians, irrespective of their political affiliation, were Ghanaians and could not be denied mining leases because of partisan considerations.

While the evidence was glaring that there were politicians from the ruling party who have applied and have been granted mining leases since LI 2462 went to Parliament, Mr Ayisi denied that was the case.

“[I’m saying] no to that question that says that it’s an attempt by the ruling government to allow their cronies or persons linked to them to do mining in forest reserves,” Mr. Ayisi said. “It is below the belt.”

Asked if parliamentary candidates needed to declare their affiliations while applying for mineral rights, he responded in the affirmative but said to be considered for the lease, they must not have a relationship with the commission.

“Any parliamentary candidate or any member of parliament can acquire a mineral right, provided you don’t have any relationship with Minerals Commission,” he said. “So, for example, a Member of Parliament who serves on our board cannot be given a mineral right.”

A Rocha Ghana

Reacting to The Fourth Estate’s findings, the Director of Operations of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, described them as “shocking.”

“This actually clarifies and confirms all that we’ve been saying that the main reason the government passed this LI is just to open up for their own people, family, and friends, to capture all mining concessions and have access so they can make themselves better off at the expense of the citizens. If the leaders who are supposed to supervise the protection and care of our forest reserves are appropriating it for themselves, then I think we’re doomed and it’s very unfortunate,” he said shaking his head.

The second part of this story will reveal the contradictions and lies fueling the interest in mining in forest reserves in Ghana.

No part of this story can be published or rewritten without the express permission of the Editor.