West Africa cannot simply import security models without accounting for local realities – WAMS

Security strategies developed elsewhere cannot simply be transplanted into West Africa’s mining sector without accounting for local political, economic and community realities, speakers at the West Africa Mining Security Conference have warned.

The issue emerged as one of the more practical themes at the sixth WAMS conference in Accra, where government officials, diplomats, mining companies and security professionals examined how the region should respond to a rapidly changing risk environment.

Deputy Minister for the Interior, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, argued that successful security approaches should be adapted to local circumstances rather than transferred wholesale from one jurisdiction to another.