MAN wants FG to disburse loans to miners

The Chairman of the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Alhaji Kabiru Kankara, has said only one person has accessed loan from the Federal Government’s Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF).

Alhaji Kabiru said this yesterday at the fourth Nigeria Mining Week holding in Abuja.

He said, “The Federal Government in its magnanimous posture allocated N2.5bn to ease the way of doing business as far as small and artisanal miners are concerned, but over two years after this allocation, nothing has come to the hands of the miners; only one person got N95m in the last two years. The money is stored somewhere, and every day, we keep crying for the money to come out. Thank God the new ministers we have now have listening ears and have given us the guarantee that they will retrieve the money. We know the money is not free, it is just a way of giving us soft loans. We invest the money and bring back the money and pay them.”

He further said MAN was sensitising its members that the money was not free, and that after investment, they must pay back.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Architect Olamilikan Adegbite, while responding to the MAN chairman, said the fund which was in collaboration with the Bank of Industry (BOI), would be given out at five per cent interest.

Architect Adegbite said, “Like the Chairman of MAN said, only one person has accessed N95m so far, we are working with other stakeholders to see that other people can access this fund. We don’t want a situation where people take money and feel it is their dividend of political patronage. We want it to be sustainable; that people get the money, pay back and then others can access it. In the next few months, I am sure we will be recording success stories on this.”