We lost $9bn to illegal mining in 2 years – FG

By Abdullahi M. Gulloma

Abuja

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Kayode Fayemi, said yesterday that the country has lost $9 billion to illegal mining activities between 2014 and 2015.
The minister, who disclosed this while addressing journalists at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said the $9 billion loss in the sector is contained in a recent report by the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
He said the council, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, has approved N987 million for the purchase of 50 Toyota Hillux vehicles at the cost of over N19 million each for deployment to curb illegal mining in 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He said the bulk of the significant increase of 8.97 per cent in the contribution of agriculture and industry to gross domestic product growth (GDP) in the third quarter of 2017 as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday came from mining and quarrying activities.
The minister also told journalists that the council approved the constitution of Special Mining Surveillance Task Force with the mandate to monitor and curb illegal mining across the country.
He said the task force would be made up of security personnel from the Nigeria Police Force, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),State Security Service (SSS), National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the office of National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President.
He said once illegal mining is put under control, there would be significant contributions from the sector to the country’s GDP, and increase in government royalty and job creation for the teeming populace.
He said federal government’s initiative on mines and steel development involves the collaboration through the setting up of the Mineral Resources and Environmental Committee as provided for in the Mining Act.
The minister the memo presented to the Federal Executive Council included moves to formalise small scale mining and artisan’s mining which he said was preceded by the earlier deposit of N5 billion in the bank to assist small scale miners and artisan miners.

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