Avoid Duplication of Two Continental Mineral Institutions AMGC Director General:
By Correspondent Damas Makangale, Dar
es Salaam,
A request has been made to member
states of the African Minerals Geoscience Centre (AMGC), especially Tanzania as
the host country, to avoid wasteful duplication of two continental mineral
institutions.
Speaking in an exclusive interview
with this newspaper in Dar es Salaam recently, the African Minerals Geoscience
Centre (AMGC) Director General Ibrahim Shaddad said a move by both United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and African Union Commission for
Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Mining (ETTIM) to establish
Africans Mineral Development Centre (AMDC) that would create duplicated
institutions with a common goal was unacceptable.
“Instead of enhancing AMGC, which has
existed since 1977, to establish AMDC carved from the mission and mandate of
AMGC established 48 years ago,” he lamented.
He said AMGC member states are urged
to continue supporting the facility by fulfilment their financial commitments
as well as maximization their benefactions from mineral services provided by
AMGC as a gateway to help it address its financial constraints.
“AMGC is facing financial constraints
and due to inadequate resources, it has not been able to fully function in
policy, advocacy and governance issues in the mining sector,” he explained.
He said its activities were downsized
to the provision of mineral services which seemed to be a realistic approach to
do instead of closing it down. “Its average annual operational budget is
$600,000 from 2015 to 2025,” said.
He noted that AMDC’s core objective
was to coordinate the implementation of Africa Mining Vision (AMV) in
2014-2016, but Tanzania did not participate in the process of initiating it.
“Tanzania was not aware enough of the
duplication issue which technically was supposed to be positioned in one
umbrella by only strengthening what already exists by empowering it, giving
AMGC full support materially and financially,” he added.
The Director General of AMGC
explained further that Tanzania was not aware of what was under the carpet
campaign to establish AMDC and the Ministry of Minerals did not act timely
together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to apply to bid for hosting AMDC
as they host AMGC.
He noted that Tanzania’s hosting of
AMDC through or beside AMGC could have been accommodated through the
established vast premises of AMGC in Dar es Salaam and avoid the duplication of
the two institutions.
Moreover, Mr. Shaddad explained that
two of AMGC member states - Kenya and Sudan - competed to host AMDC, while
other member states were opposed to it, but were diplomatically silenced.
He said AMGC was not in a position to
suggest and influence the situation which was a matter of AU member states,
including AMGC member states, to take up the matter at the right time.
“There are three technical
overlapping areas between AMGC and AMDC, which are geo-information (geodata
systems), artisanal mining sector, and capacity building. Other areas of the
seven-work streams of AMDC business plan include governance, advocacy, policy
and promotion for investment. The initial phase of AMDC as a project received
the generous donation of $12 million from Australian and Canadian governments,
from which UNECA took 10% as management cost” he noted.
Mr. Shaddad said the long promised
financial support of $200,000 for the procurement of XRD analytical equipment
for mineralogical and petrological identification of geological materials which
was lacking at that time through UNECA, AMDC, AUC had not been received in
spite of repeated meetings, correspondences and empty promises since 2015.
He noted that UNDP through an
incubation programme supported AMDC with $2.4 million as an operational budget
annually from the end of 2019 to June-July 2025 in addition to possible donor
support for specific projects.
However, when AMDC initiative was
discussed by AU member countries, AMGC members raised their concern for the
duplication of the two institutions and the fate of AMGC if AMDC was going to
be established under AU.
He said the statute establishing AMDC
was adopted by the 26th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly in January 2016
[Assembly/AU/Dec.589 (XX VI)].
Mr. Shaddad explained that as of
February 2024 four African countries - Guinea, Mali, Zambia and Nigeria - had
ratified the statute and eight African states, including two of AMGC member
states - Chad, Comoros, Ghana, Mauritania, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,
Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Togo – had signed it. At least 15 ratifications are
required for entry into force of the statute and the full operationalization of
AMDC as specialized agency of AU.
In 1977, UNECA established in Africa
five regional mineral centers, including former Southern and Eastern African
Mineral Centre (SEAMIC) to harmonize regional geological surveying and provide
mineral exploration and consulting services.
The only Centre that survived is
SEAMIC which later renamed to AMGC due to commitment from its member states –
that is Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Angola, Comoros, Kenya, and
Sudan and recently joined by South Sudan.
AMGC is an independent, multinational
and intergovernmental Centre of excellence having the diplomatic status and
works under the umbrella of both UNECA and ETTIM.
UNECA is a member of the Governing
Council of AMGC, and has always chaired the Standing Committee of Officials and
Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of AMGC.
Its management strives after
increasing the awareness of its member states, particularly Tanzania, the host
country over the concerns of duplication between AMGC and AMDC in mission and
mandate, double membership to the two institutions in addition to the possible
consequences of AMDC suffocating AMGC.
Formerly, AMGC was known as SEAMIC
established in 1977 through the efforts of the founding fathers of Tanzania and
Ethiopia, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Haile Selassie respectively. The two
leaders were staunch supporters of African countries’ liberation struggle.
AMGC principally conducts regional
geological surveys and provides mineral exploration and consulting services for
the programmes of its founding member countries - that is Ethiopia, Mozambique
and Tanzania - and later was joined by Uganda, Angola and the Comoros. Kenya became
a member in 2006, Sudan in 2010 and South Sudan in 2025.
In 2007, a ministerial meeting in
Maputo decided that membership is open to all African states. To reflect this
expansion scope, the name of the facility changed into AMGC from July 2015.
In 1991, AMGC moved its operations
from being hosted by Geological Survey of Tanzania (GST) in Dodoma to a new
site in Kunduchi area, Dar es Salaam with a mission to promote socioeconomic
and environmentally responsible mineral sector development in Africa. To meet
new demand for mineral sector stakeholders AMGC diversified its services to
provide a high-tech, modern mineral analytical laboratory services and
geo-information data processing activities, complemented by the provision of
short-term specialized training.
There is a need to merge AMGC into
AMDC to avoid institutional duplication between the two continental institutes.
A task force is suggested to be led by the Chairman of AMGC Governing Council
and membered by some of Ministers responsible for mining in AMGC member states
and AMGC Director General to pay a courtesy visit to the Chairperson of AU in
Addis Ababa could be a perfect venue to raise the issue, which is vital to the
Centre’s success in serving both the Minerals Industry and Geosciences Community
in Africa.
Ends.