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The Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini says government's decision to ban the importation of excavators in effort to combat illegal mining is the “wrong and a lazy approach”.

“If they [government] want to fight galamsey, they should use the stakeholder approach. The ban on excavators is a misguided approach used by government. Excavators are not only used for galamsey, constructors also use excavators,” he said in an interview with NEAT FM’s morning show ‘Ghana Montie’.

Cabinet has placed a temporary ban on the importation of excavators in efforts to combat illegal mining.

The ban takes effect from May 1, 2019, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Transport and signed by the sector minister, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah in Accra.

According to the statement, the ban will remain in effect until further notice.

It said Cabinet at its sitting on March 27, 2019, placed the temporary ban.

“This has become necessary following government’s decision to combat the illegal mining phenomenon, popularly referred to as galamsey,” the statement explained and, accordingly, urged the public to take note of the directive.

But, Inusah Fuseini argued that “The ban will automatically shoot up the price of local excavators in the country. Since they know they can no longer import excavators, the price will go up and that will affect legal businesses that use excavators to work. This will also affect the economy.”