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The Minerals Income and Investment Fund (MIIF) has revealed plans to support the development of the salt industry in Ghana with the Ada Songhor Lagoon as utmost priority. This followed a working tour by the Board and Management of MIIF and officials of the Ghana Stock Exchange. The Ada Salt pans on the Songhor Lagoon have the potential to be the largest salt producing area in sub-Saharan Africa. The CEO of MIIF revealed to reporters that, “MIIF is far advanced with plans to invest in the Ada Songhor salt project towards developing it to be the largest in sub-Saharan Africa. Ultimately this investment seeks to ensure that Ghana benefits from the many uses of salt, especially as a core input to support the industrialization agenda of the Government of Ghana”.  

The Ada Songhor pans which sits on some 41,000 acres straddling at least thirty-three (33) Ada Communities is larger in acreage than Walvis Bay of Namibia which is about 16,700 acres and is the largest in sub-saharan Africa. According to officials of Electrochem Ghana Limited which is the Ghanaian company developing the salt pans, the Songhor has the potential to produce more than 5 million MT at capacity with an estimated  650,000 metric tons (mt) of industrial salt in 2023 and circa 1.5 million MT over the next five years with a 99.99% purity.

MIIF’s Salt outlook and Investment
MIIF has declared salt as a priority mineral in Ghana in line with its investment strategy of generating downstream to upstream value from every single mineral. According to Professor Douglas Boateng, the Board Chairman of MIIF, “the Fund is targeting investments across the producing areas in the Greater Accra and Central regions of Ghana”.

The CEO of MIIF, Mr. Koranteng further stressed that “Salt is an infinite resource with over 14,000 uses. At full potential and with such expansive usage, salt in Ghana has the potential to earn circa $500 Million a year in foreign exchange with Nigeria and the sub-region as priority markets. Salt as a raw material covers the pharmaceuticals, food processing, oil and gas, food preservation, production of caustic soda, the textiles industry, mining, road maintenance, hospitals and hospitality sectors which all require high grade salt to support the manufacturing of inputs or processing. This is the reason why MIIF is excited about this opportunity for Ghana and is currently working  on a broad based investment which would include a listing of the project on the Ghana Stock Exchange”. The scale of the Ada Songhor salt project also presents opportunities for two export jetties to facilitate export and other lake transport opportunities, create massive employment in the producing areas and substantially revitalize the local economies.

MIIF Investment and the intended Listing of Electrochem on the Ghana Stock Exchange
In accordance with MIIF’s investment strategy to ensure that, all major investments are listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, the Chief Executive Officer of MIIF, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng  confirmed that Electrochem has agreed to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange as a condition to MIIF’s investment. Mr. Koranteng stated that, “Investing in salt is part of our mineral diversification strategy in line with President Nana Akuffo Addo’s charge to MIIF, to ensure that we create Ghanaian business champions while at the same time creating opportunities along the value chain and on the capital markets for Ghanaians to directly have the chance to invest in such companies”.

The Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange Ms. Abena Amoah who is also a member of the Investment Advisory Committee ( IAC) of MIIF said; “ What I have come to see here, really warms my heart.  A great company is underpinned by the quality of the asset. We can become Africa’s number one salt producer, the sea never dries, the technology exists to mine the salt, the market for salt is not in doubt and with some ringfencing and great risk management, the investment in Electrochem and its listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange will be a win-win for all Ghanaians.”

About Ada Songhor 
Constructed in the 1970s, the Ada Songhor Salt Project by acreage is the largest in sub-saharan Africa. It has run into several challenges over the years including lack of investment and was vested in the Government in 1992.  Following a five-year investment endeavour which required garnering and courting community support, Electrochem Ghana Ltd finally obtained a long term lease in 2021 to manage the salt pans and to quickly put a plan of development in place. The plan has seen a total investment of $80 Million so far which has gone into rehabilitating the pans which had become decrepit and overly silted and the restoration of the Songhor Lagoon which had dried up for eight years.

“All the work done from scratch has been with our technical partners, Serra Process of Spain. Their advice and expertise gleaned from years of experience as a major global player in Salt is responsible for the successes chalked on this project” says Dzigbordi Kwaku-Dosoo, the Business Consultant on the project for Electrochem.”.  “We are excited about the Ada Songhor project because it has restored the balance between the business and ecology of the area. As a Ramsar site (wetland reserved for international environmental purposes), the birds have started coming from all over the world and on the economic front, more than 1500 young people have been employed on the mine, through a micro-credit facility developed by Electrochem, the women in the various communities have interest free loans for their businesses and fishing is back in full force on the lake,” Dzigbordi Kwaku-Dosoo said.

The current status of the Ada Songhor Salt Project
Electrochem has outlined four major steps for the development of the Salt pans in Ada. The First is the restoration of the lake and the pans which have been completed. The expansion of infrastructure and importation of evaporators are ongoing with the company currently at circa 12% production.

The construction of an industrial bay to support the logistics management and export which has been completed. This is now the largest in Africa.
The firm plans to also build a jetty to facilitate sea exports and has already obtained the permits for the project. Further to the above, Electrochem plans to construct a refinery to support the production of domestic consumption of salt or retail use.

The Chairman of Electrochem, Daniel Mckorley said “ We have invested our toil into this project but we recognize that we still have someway to go. We are going to be Africa’s number one producer of Salt both for industrial and domestic use. Our plan is to make the activities of Songhor Salt benefit the people of Ada and the people of Ghana. My philosophy is simple. If we cannot use the minerals God has given us to make our people wealthy, then we would have failed God completely”.

About MIIF
The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) is Ghana’s minerals sovereign fund. MIIF was established pursuant to the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978) as amended to receive royalties’ payments from mineral production activities in Ghana and to manage Government of Ghana’s equity interest in mining companies.

The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) has announced an 87.4% growth in its Asset under Management (AUM) from GH¢1.7 billion to GH¢3.2 billion within the last 12 months ending December 2022.
MIIF indicated that the remarkable growth was primarily anchored on innovative strategies which led to growth in royalties income, expansion of royalty sources and investment income.

Investing for Growth
Investment activities of MIIF effectively commenced in March 2022 with a US$20 million acquisition of a stake in Asante Gold Corporation, a Canadian and German-listed company with assets in Bibiani, Chirano, and Kubi. MIIF subscribed to 14,514,286 ordinary shares, representing 4.62% of the entity at the time. MIIF has also closed a GH¢25 million deal in a Ghana/Africa SME-focused Fund. MIIF is readying investments in lithium and salt of up to US$60 million and a small-scale mining incubation support program of up to US$60 million in 2023. MIIF also plans to develop a gold-backed ETF with the support of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) for trading on the Ghanaian Bourse and possibly the Johannesburg and Toronto Stock Exchanges.

Performance of Investments of the Fund
The Fund recorded an annualized end-year return of 6.13% in 2022. The return was also influenced by foreign exchange volatility and good treasury management of funds.
Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fund told the Daily Graphic exclusively, “MIIF mobilized GH¢1.3 billion in 2021 and GH¢1.8 billion in 2022, representing a 36% growth over the previous year. This was a major factor in growing the Fund’s AUM. We have been able to do this because of an inter-agency framework we put in place last year which has seen us collaborating with more agencies. These agencies include the Ghana Standards Authority, the Economic and Organized Crime Office and the Minerals Commission which is the regulator of the minerals sub-sector. We have also adopted innovative technologies such as geo-mapping all mining sites in Ghana and also creating a real-time dashboard for all royalties contribution from every mine in the country,”  Mr. Koranteng said.
Mr Koranteng further said that, “The Fund put in measures to expand the royalties stream by adding sand-winning and salt to the list of royalties paying minerals which help with diversifying the royalties base away from gold.”

MIIF outperforms Global Benchmarked Indexes
MIIF outperformed global benchmarks with an annualized end-year return of 6.13% in 2022. The year 2022 witnessed significant market losses for equities and Fixed Income investments globally. Equities spent most of the year in a bear market, with the S&P 500, FTSE 100, and GSE-CI recording end-year returns of -19.49%, +0.91%, -12.38%, respectively. This compares to the 6.13% return achieved by MIIF.
The bond market was also hit, especially in developing economies, as the risk of defaults increased. The Russia-Ukraine conflict triggered global inflation and general market uncertainties.

MIIF as a lever for development
Mr. Koranteng expressed optimism that MIIF will, in a few years, become the lever that can help Ghana through volatile economic periods and offer the stability that is needed in the economy. “MIIF will seek to diversify its funding and investment portfolio sources, including capital market transactions, a gold trade desk which has already been set up which will definitely be a source of forex for the country, and explore risk participation in high-yielding projects with top-grade financial institutions.”  Mr Koranteng emphasized that “We are a young fund, however, we are focused on getting it right. We plan to hit the US$500 million AUM by January 2024 and US$1 billion by 2027. We have made investments in Asante Gold, we are targeting some gold exploratory companies, lithium and salt as well as lithium by-products such as feldspar and silica to kickstart the ceramics and fibreglass industry.”

About MIIF
The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) is Ghana’s minerals sovereign fund. MIIF was established pursuant to the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978) as amended to receive royalties payments from mineral production activities in Ghana and to manage the government’s equity interest in mining companies.  

The fund responsible for managing Ghana’s mining royalties plans to invest up to $60 million this year in companies both within and outside the gold-producing nation, its chief executive told Reuters earlier this month. The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) bought about $20 million worth of shares late February in the Toronto- and Frankfurt-listed Asante Gold Corporation, which operates Ghana’s Bibiani Gold Mine.
By investing in firms with high growth potential and reviewing the strategies of collecting royalties from smaller firms, Koranteng said MIIF hoped to ‘widen Ghana’s royalty net’ and keep the fund growing.
This year, the fund has particular interest in industrial salt companies, which Koranteng says could become major suppliers to the region’s numerous gas and oil wells.
Starting in July, MIIF also plans to invest in about 400 small-scale gold mining outfits, in hopes of growing them into profitable mid-sized firms

Source: Africa Briefing

The Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Income and Investment Fund (MIIF), Edward Nana Koranteng, says the Fund is working towards becoming the biggest mineral fund for the mining industry in Africa within the nearest future.
The Minerals Income and Investment Fund was set up to manage the equity interest of government in large scale mining and all mining royalties paid as well as their investment.
Speaking during a courtesy call on the Western Regional Minister in Sekondi as part of his one-week familiarization tour of mining companies and their stakeholders in the region, Edward Nana Koranteng said the MIIF is set to have $500 million asset in three-years time as part of its vision which also concerns the mining communities.
“MIIF’s intention really is to become the biggest minerals fund in Africa, and we are actually on the way to achieve that. We believe that in three years time, we should have about $500 million asset under management, but our impact will not be felt if it does not impact the people. It wouldn’t also be to any purpose if we do not see the main mining communities like Tarkwa being transformed.”

Source: Citi News