On 14th December 2010, the GHEITI Secretariat and the National Steering Committee in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning organized a durbar/forum at the Tarkwa Community Centre to sensitize the people on the principles of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative. Although there have been several instances of sensitization activities for the Media, Civil Society, Companies and other target stakeholders, the Tarkwa Forum was the first of its kind to interact with people at the grass root and in an informal way. 

Participants at the Forum included persons from all walks of life, the aged, youth, farmers, artisans and the general public. At the forum, members of the National Steering Committee took turns to explain the issues to the participants. There was a question and answer session where doubts were cleared and misconceptions removed.

On the whole, participants were pleased to learn about the initiative and were particularly delighted to know that mineral revenue payments to the District Assembly were being made public. Participants were also pleased to know of plans to establish an information centre at Tarkwa where they could access information on mining and mineral revenue payment to the local authority.

This was followed by some questions, comments and contributions by the participants.