Africa-Press – Tanzania. GEITA Gold Mining Limited (GGML) in its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan for 2021/2022 and Geita District Councils on Sunday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of 9.2bn/- to improve status of the environment, infrastructure, health, education and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the surrounding communities.
Presided over by Geita Regional Commissioner, Rosemary Senyamule the MoU is a sign of how the company supports the government and citizens in line the amended Section 105 of the Mining Act, which contains provisions on the corporate social responsibility plan of a mineral right’s holder to plough back to the community.
In her speech, she said the implementation of the CSR plan will benefit communities in the region, especially to environment, infrastructure, health, education gaps and as well raise livelihoods of the SMEs.
Elaborating, the RC expressed the government’s appreciation for the strong and healthy partnership between GGML and the Geita community saying, “The Company (GGML) continues to be lauded for the great gesture on how CSR is executed…it strives to support the government’s aspirations of sustainable social and economic development in the host communities.
The company also seeks to work with local authorities and communities in identifying, implementing and managing key projects for the sustainable future of the Geita region and we are delighted to reaffirm our commitment.”
On his part, GGML Managing Director Richard Jordinson said: “Now in our fourth CSR plan since the amendment of the Mining Act, we are optimistic we can raise the past projects and enhance ownership by the communities and we shall continue collaborating on sustainable projects to the residents after the life of the mine.
“GGML works closely with local government authorities to support a number of community projects in the Geita region through public-private partnerships, including the Geita Town potable water project to help increase the number of people have access to clean and safe water from just 3 per cent to almost 40 per cent as witnessed between 2016 and 2020.
“GGML also runs programmes at the national level, notably the GGML Kili Challenge against HIV and AIDS and seen the contribution of 1.3bn/- for HIV prevention and care and treatment projects across the country since 2018.”
Consistent with GGML’s core value of providing sustainable socio-economic development to the Geita community beyond mining activities, GGML has implemented various projects in the local communities, including providing with clean and safe water, education and economic development activities in agriculture, transport and services by spending over 50bn/-.
The company has remitted and paid more than $1.7 billion (3.9tr/-) in taxes to the government since its inception.
Beyond CSR and taxes, the company has a strong local business content and enterprise development component, as evidenced by the 67.6bn/- spent on procurement of goods and services from indigenous Tanzanian companies by the end of September 2021.
To sustain the participation of Tanzanian businesses in the company’s supply chain, GGML has partnered with the National Economic Empowerment Council (NEEC) to up-skill over 350 Geita-based businesses through training.
Earlier this year, GGML was named the best performing company in the country’s mining sector for the 2019/2020 financial year, after winning awards in social responsibility, environment and safety, payment of government revenue (taxes) and local business content.
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