Key stakeholders discuss financial inclusion, policy and legal framework for Artisanal Small Scale Gold Miners (ASGM) in Uganda.
On 28th February 2024, AIBIS participated in a validation workshop organized by PlanetGOLD Uganda at Protea Skyz hotel in Kampala. The workshop was aimed at discussing findings of the two studies conducted under the planet GOLD project portfolio with a focus on largely the artisanal and small-scale mining sector in Uganda.
AIBIS was represented in the meeting by Ms. Peruth Atukwatse, the Senior Progamme Officer for Gender and Chemicals Management.
The overview of the first study was presented at the meeting by Dr. Siraji Magara on behalf of PlanetGold Uganda and it was entitled, “A scoping study of existing financial inclusion initiatives in Uganda”. The study was aimed at providing an opportunity to identify potential initiatives that could be supported by the project to scale or adapt to the mining sector but also find out what has been successful to date that could be replicated in other mining areas.
From the study, various financial mechanisms that could benefit ASGM were identified and discussed. These include, government financial initiatives such as Parish Development Model (PDM), Emyooga , Uganda Women Development Entrepreneurship Programme among others. It was found out that these were not at the moment benefiting ASGM since it is not one of the pillars of the programmes like farming. It was agreed that lobbying government on this issue was crucial. Banking institutions were also identified as potential financiers but they had still not embraced the sector because of reasons like poor record keeping, no licences, the speculative nature of the sector and non assurance of the gold reserves.
While contributing at the meeting, Ms. Atukwatse said, “there is need to identify the investment needs of different categories of miners so that it helps to know who to engage exactly for financial support”
She said that different stakeholders especially ministry of finance and ministry of energy needed to work harder to extend financial literacy to the miners and do more lobbying and engagement so that miners can also benefit from government financial initiatives as well as engage the banking institutions on appropriate packages for the miners.
“Women face disproportionate challenges in accessing finances, and therefore should be more targeted and supported,” she added.
The second study was, “Collation of assessment of legal and regulatory framework related to artisanal and small-scale miners” and it was presented at the meeting by Mr. Daniel Balikuddembe. The study was on comparative analysis of the frameworks from other countries in gold mining across the region. It was realized that Uganda has good laws and policies especially the minerals and mining Act of 2022 and the policy of 2018 that target the activities of the ASGM sector but that the implementation was still slow and yet to be realized. PlanetGOLD is contributing to governments efforts of having a well formalized sector where miners can work in a safe, healthy and improved economic gains environment.
