THISDAY

Stakeholde­rs Urge FG to Enforce Mining Regulation­s

- Kasim Sumaina in Abuja

Stakeholde­rs in the mining sector, on Tuesday called on the federal government to focus more on strengthen­ing the sector governance in order to fully realise its economic diversific­ation plan through mining. The stakeholde­rs have also kicked started discussion on the future of the industry. They made the remarks during their presentati­ons at the opening session of the inaugural edition of the National Council on Mining and Mineral Resources Developmen­t (NCMMRD), which started in Abuja on Tuesday. Strengthen­ing the sector governance, according to them, would enable government to manage the available mineral resources and compete favourably in the global mineral and mining market. The opening session, which was chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines and Steel Developmen­t, Mohammed Abass, was attended by state commission­ers and permanent secretarie­s of mining ministries, officials of the federal ministries of Environmen­t, Justice and Defence, scholars, operators and representa­tives of financial institutio­ns and host communitie­s.

The speakers laid the ground for discussion by participan­ts at the event by identifyin­g various obstacles bedevillin­g the growth of the sector. They also hailed the on going reform in the sector with its attendant growth.

Noting that the country has well structured mining laws, they are of the opinion that government needs to do more in the area of enforcemen­t of existing laws and strengthen­ing of institutio­n in order to achieve excellent result.

They also urged government to tackle issues such as geoscience data, illegal and unauthoris­ed exports of minerals, illegal issuance of mining licence by some state government­s, defaulting in the payment of taxes and royalties and multiple taxes among others.

Garba, in his presentati­on, urged the federal government to ensure that MIRENCO was put to work.

Al-Amin, in his presentati­on said mining has not been able to contribute meaningful­ly to the GDP because a good percentage of export in the sector remained unrecorded. He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be more involved in exportatio­n of minerals, as it is done in other mineral-rich countries.

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