Chirano Gold Mines Ltd has paid a 10% dividend to the government of Ghana worth 13 million dollars for the 2017 fiscal year.
This the company attributes to its good performance for the year 2017.
Presenting the cheque to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Vice President and General Manager of Chirano Gold Mines Limited, Adriano Sobreira said he is hopeful the company will continue to record good performance to enable them pay dividend to government.
“The payment of the dividend for 2017 which was approved was based on financial criteria and good performance especially, in 2017. This has made it possible for Chirano to pay a dividend. We are proud to pay the 13million dollars dividend to the government of Ghana. This illustrates our capacity to create and deliver value to all our stakeholders” he emphasized.
He continued saying “ For our host countries and our local communities, this dividend represents only part of that which we do and has contributed significantly as Chirano to the local communities and the government of Ghana at large especially Ghanaian economy for more than 1.8 billion since 2018”.
The Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia has on several occasions criticized companies for claiming they did not make profit in other for them to be exempted from paying dividend to the country.
Dr. Bawumia also questioned that rationale for mining companies to continue production even though they claim they are making losses.
Receiving the dividend on behalf of government, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asoah-Cheremeh urged other companies to do the needful and present their 10% quota to government.
“The Auditor General’s report on the public accounts of Ghana consolidated fund for the year ended 31st December, 2014 revealed that for the ten year period, 2005-2014, only four out of the 22 mining companies sampled, paid any dividend to government of Ghana. Again, the Ghana EITI report for 2015 indicated that only two companies paid dividend to government for that year whilst for 2016 no dividend was paid. We are therefore happy that in relating to 2017, we are seeing signs that dividends will start flowing and that is the example that you have shown”.
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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana.