The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD) on Monday disclosed that the mining sector contributed N7.8 billion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021.
The Director of Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM) Department in the ministry, Mr Patrick Ojeka, who gave this hint in Abuja, said that the Mining Cadastral Office (MCO), an agencies of the ministry, accounted for the largest chunk of the sector’s contribution to the GDP.
The MCO had recently told journalists that it generated N4.3 billion as revenue in 2021.
Ojeka pointed out that the ministry’s contribution to the GDP in 2021 was unprecedented compared to its past contributions.
He said: “The ministry in its effort to put the sector in its rightful place came up with a Road Map, inaugurated by the former minister and incumbent Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
“The road map made the sector attractive to investors and has placed the sector on the path of growth and development.
“Fayemi also accessed N30 billion for the ministry. It was a great achievement; the fund helped to upscale the performance of the sector to a higher level”, the Director added.
According to him, the ministry will soon begin to capture the biometrics of more 2,000 artisanal miners that registered in cooperatives across the country.
Ojeka further explained that the essence of the exercise was to know their locations and monitor their operations.
He expatiated: “The biometrics will help to locate and apprehend artisanal miner that commit offence; it will help in locating where they are conducting mining operations.
“Currently, the ministry has formalised the operations of over 2000 artisanal miners that registered into different cooperatives. We want to go beyond formalisation; we want to have their biometrics.
“We have procured biometric equipment that will soon be deployed to the field for the exercise and we will issue them Identity Cards.
“We noticed that some artisanal miners have been formalised several times due to their movement from one field to another, but the biometrics will henceforth prevent double formalisation.
“The Federal Government do not call artisanal miners ‘illegal miners;’ they are miners that are scratching the surface of the land to earn their living. We call them artisanal miners.
“As far as they have been formalized into cooperatives, they can access small scale mining licences from the MCO to conduct full mining operation”, the Director added.
Ojeka also hinted that agreement had been reached with artisanal miners operating on tenement basis (land) that belong to mining investors to sell minerals mined on the tenement to the investors.
