The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, on Tuesday said that the Mining Cadastre Office generated N3.88 billion as revenue from mining licences between January to October this year, representing about N1.5 billion increase over the N2.3 billion it raked in from the source in 2020.
The minister, who made this disclosure during his keynote address at the fifth edition of the Nigeria Mining Week, said that in current year about 1,566 licences had been revoked as the Mining Cadastre Office continues to enhance the process of mineral title acquisition and administration.
He explained: “The Mining Cadastre Office has been repositioned to promote transparency in mineral title administration.
“The processes have been streamlined to enable investors to apply online and obtain licenses and leases within and outside Nigeria. We are also establishing MCO offices in the six geo-political zones. They include Jos, Enugu, Ibadan, Kaduna, Maiduguri, and Benin.
“From the revenue drive perspective, MCO has demonstrated marked improvement despite the challenges of the pandemic.
“It grew its revenue from N2.3bn in 2020 to N3.88bn in 2021 as of October 31st, with two months still remaining in this year to achieve higher revenue”, the minister added.
Adegbite attributed the boost in revenue generation to reformative measures by the ministry, especially the introduction of the ‘First Come, First Served’ and ‘Use it or Lose it’ policy in the licensing administration.
He maintained that this policy had helped to re-organize, eliminate speculators, and led to the revocation of about 1,566 mineral titles and helped in re-activating many dormant licences.
