By Patience Chat Moses
Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Mr. Dele Alake, has said that the Federal Government needs funding worth about N70 billion to support solid minerals exploration activities across the country.
Mr. Alake stated this during an investigative hearing in Abuja with the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals chaired by Senator Ekong Sampson, where he reeled out the challenges bedevilling the Ministry.
According to the Minister, Nigeria’s budget for solid minerals exploration is one of the lowest in the world, noting that insecurity is mitigating against progress in the sector hence the need for Senate approval for increased funding.
He referenced Standard & Poor’s, a global rating agency’s report, which ranked Nigeria’s exploration budget 12th in Africa, with Ivory Coast leading the continent with a $147 million investment.
According to him,when we compare the exploration budgets of other African countries with ours, it is depressing.
He added that Nigeria’s investment in exploration was $2.5 million against $147m of Ivory Coast and $133m of Congo.
“In our determination to compete, we had proposed a budget of N70 billion to invest in exploration that would cover the entire Nigerian landscape. Going by the budget of the Year 2024, our capacity to move at our desired speed may be undermined. We need your support to fund exploration and kit our personnel to regulate the sector”, he said.
The Minister, while placing emphasis on efforts to tackle illegal mining, informed the senators about the recently launched 2,220-member Mining Marshals force, with 60 operatives deployed in each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He explained that there are four main categories of illegal miners: unlicensed miners, licensed miners operating outside their cadastral units, licensed miners extracting minerals not covered by their licenses, and miners using licenses exclusively reserved for Nigerians.
The Minister noted that illegal mining activities cost the country over $9 billion annually.
Aligned with the Federal Government’s new value addition policy, Alake announced plans to establish six additional processing centres across the geopolitical zones.
He reiterated that providing adequate resources for the Mining Marshals and implementing other ministry reforms needs legislative backing for appropriate statutes, enhanced funding, and robust oversight mechanisms.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development, Ekong Sampson, stated that the three-day investigative hearing aims to uncover the myriad challenges hindering the development of the mining sector despite the country’s vast mineral deposits.
