Boosting Nigeria’s Mining Industry

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, during his recent nationwide tour of some mining sites in the country held a town hall meeting with stakeholders in the sector to chart a way forward. Peace Obi reports

Nigeria is richly endowed with a variety of solid minerals, but the vast potential of these mineral deposits scattered all over Nigeria has remained largely untapped.

With the solid mineral deposits estimated to be in millions of metric tons, it is said to be capable of creating millions of jobs and generating more revenue than crude if properly developed. But for the federal government, it is not only time to break away from the status quo and reposition the sector; it is actually time to follow up policies with implementation exercises.

With some pragmatic steps taken so far by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the federal government has demonstrated its commitment to the diversification of the nation’s economy with mining industry as one of its areas of focus. Armed with a roadmap which targets to actualise shared mining prosperity for all stakeholders – a goal the ministry plans to pursue through the development of the sector, ensuring stronger regulatory framework, enabling environment, among others. Determined to lead the sector to a path of recovery, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi recently embarked on a nationwide tour of some mining sites in the country. The tour, which was preceded by a town hall meeting of the stakeholders in the sector, attracted not just top government officials, but also operators and other stakeholders.

Speaking at the town hall meeting in Lagos, recently, the minister hinted that the tour was to enable his office get a better understanding beyond the routine office paper work by interacting with the stakeholders as well as institutions involved in mining in the country. According to him, the town hall meeting was to allow for interaction between the federal and state governments as well as operators in the mining and steel industry.

Stressing the need for the synergy between the federal government, state government and operators, Fayemi said that the roadmap for solid mineral development which was signed by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) would be further strengthened by the partnership between host communities, states and the federal coordinating authorities.
A roadmap for the sector was approved by the Federal Executive Council in September 2016. The highlight of that roadmap, he recalled, was to strengthen the partnership between the host communities where these mineral resources are endowed, the state authorities as well as ourselves in the federal government.

While issues peculiar to each state were brought to the front burner at the meeting, the Lagos stakeholders meeting was dominated by issues bothering on sand mining, Ogun on quarrying-related issues, kaduna on talc and gold among others. Fielding questions from operators and stakeholders, a group of surface miners in Lagos, who claimed to have been out of business for over a year because their business was stopped by Lagos State despite having their Federal CADASTRE, accused Lagos State of imposing double taxation on them. They called for the federal government’s intervention, insisting that the N500,000 operational consent, being demanded, amounts to double taxation. They said that the denial of access to their means of livelihood has brought untold hardship on their families.

According to one of the stakeholders, Prince Olusola Idris, who spoke to THISDAY, “We understand mining to be on the exclusive list, which vests the federal government the power to issue mining licences. And we have obtained licence for over a year now, but Lagos State would not allow us to work. They issued us stop work order and demanded that we pay the sum of N500,000 for the state’s operational consent.

“This, we consider as double taxation, which is contrary to the law of the land. What we understand from the law is that we can only pay haulage to the state government while we pay royalty to the federal government. The operational fee is not only outrageous; it is renewable fee every year. We have tried to meet with the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources without any headway. They have persistently refused to meet with us or address our concerns. They have thrown us back into the labour market.”
However, the minister has reinstated federal government’s belief in partnership and collaboration with the state in achieving its goals.

He said: “The reason why I am here is to work out an arrangement that will enable all of us be owners of these processes. And that where there are differences between the state, federal authorities and the operators to iron it out. And how we can achieve synergy between what is in the exclusive preserve of the state and what is the responsibility of the federal authorities in managing the mineral resource development that is an area that is of interest to this government.

“It is a government that believes in more partnership and collaboration with the states. We feel very strongly that we have to find a creative mechanism that will enable us have a win, win situation. And I am not unaware of the challenges that we have encountered here in Lagos State.”

Speaking on the need for operators to abide by acceptable environment standard, Fayemi declared: “What I think all of us have to agree is that at the end of the day, we also need to be safe in the process of looking for money. And there is no state that will stay idly and watch if there is likely going to be environmental degradation in the course of exploring the mineral resources that are available in the state.”

Attributing the stop work order on surface and sand miners in Lagos State, to the bid to guard against environmental degradation, the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Olawale Oluwo disclosed that the action was taken to guard against severe damage that could worsen the already fragile ecosystem, thereby leading to serious and irreparable damage to the entire landscape.

Evoking the principles of federalism, the minister disclosed that Lagos State is not a surbordinate authority to the federal government. According to him, “anybody who understands the principles of federalism will know that Lagos State is a coordinate authority and we really cannot impose our will on Lagos. However, as far as the law is concerned, we also have the duty to protect those who we have issued licences and those who have stayed within the ambit of the law,” he said.

Another stakeholder, Chief Oyewole Oworu, called for a more frequent interaction between the ministry and other stakeholders for the advancement of the industry. Blaming most of the challenges people face at their different fields to inadequacy of the ministry’s inspectorate department, Oworu expressed concern that “foreigners have taken over mining industry in Nigeria. “They have not only taken over in terms of lease acquisition, they are also labourers in the field these days. You see them digging, mining and driving trucks on mining fields. Not only that, they will now take the crude resources, assembly it somewhere in Ikeja and take it out unprocessed. That amounts to a great loss to the country.”

Speaking in the same vein, the representative of the Miners Association of Nigeria, Mr. Adeyemi Folorunsho, requested for clear guidelines for investing in Ajaokuta Steel. He stated the urgent need to revive the Ajaokuta Steel, especially in the face of scraps depletion the country is gradually sliding into. “We want to know the guidelines for investing in Ajaokuta, because that is the backbone for the raw material for the mining industry.”
He said the intervention funds should be given to development banks for implementation said it would give opportunity for a more-friendly rate for the investors. Responding to sundry issues raised at different fora, the minister said that the government is taking the issue of security at various mineral sites very seriously.

Listed some of the recent security measures by the ministry to include the establishment of Mines Police in every state Police Command, Fayemi said: “You would have noticed increased activities on the part of the Civil Defense in your area of your operations. That is something we requested and fully sanctioned. It is not exclusively for the Civil Defense, the Police too are involved. Thankfully the Inspector General of Police has after our request, set up the Mines Police Division with Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge. And every state command will have a unit within the command that is also responsible.”

He described the activities of some foreign miners as unacceptable, adding the ministry is working with the Nigeria Customs Service and other relevant security agencies to make it illegal for anyone to take out unprocessed minerals.
“Taking out unprocessed minerals under any guise is unacceptable and we have taken a firm position on this. We will make it difficult for anybody to take out unprocessed minerals. “We will support and encourage operators to set up plants, process the minerals here and you can then export it”, he added.

Commenting on the federal government’s readiness to support Miners Association with equipment leasing, the minister revealed that federal government is working on an equipment leasing scheme for the Nigeria Miners Association in order to ensure that its members scale up their mining operations.

He assured the miners of the ministry’s commitment to ensuring they benefit from the N30 billion intervention fund approved by the federal government. He said that a lot of opportunities exist in real sector financing via Bank of Industry for small scale miners, even the export finance of the Central Bank for the big players.

“I will appeal to you that we have a comprehensive register. If you see yourself as a miner, artisanal or otherwise, please register. And we are not registering you because we want to monitor you. It helps us in our quest to also improve livelihood. We want to know the number of people we have in mining in an accurate manner; that, would enable us find a way to support your activities with tools, with access to finance, with technical expertise.

So that it is not just this shovel and digger mining that most of our people do at the artisanal level that we will continue to indulge.
“Government is committed to the scheme. Our miners cannot achieve much as long as they rely on shovel and digger for their work. We also know that modern equipment are quite costly. So, government would make arrangements with financial institutions and some operators to make the equipment available for leasing,” the minister said. And in move to discourage illegal mining, several illegal mining sites were closed across the states of the federation.

“Our approach is to collaborate and cooperate with the state governments but we also do not want to do that at the detriment of promoting illegality, the law is very clear. Mining is an exclusive activity of the federal authorities. There may be reasons for states to be involved, environmental protection, legitimate collection of charges, etc. But the only thing that can make that possible is, if those who are operating the sites first and foremost are legally allowed to operate in mining sites. That is if they have the mining licence and the process is clearly stated in the law”, he stressed.