By Andy Asemota
The Senate will on Wednesday commence a probe into the annual loss of $9bn to illegal gold mining.
Chairman of Senate Committee on Solid Minerals and Steel Development, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, indicated this on Tuesday.
He was speaking at the start of a three-day public hearing on four bills and a motion organized by the committee in Abuja.
The senator revealed that the Red Chamber would subject the motion on the urgent need to investigate the multi-billion-dollar loss to thorough scrutiny.
Al-Makura, who is also the sponsor of one of the bills examined at the forum titled: Nigerian Minerals Development Corporation (Establishment) Bill, 2021, did not, however, give the salient details of the huge loss to illegal miners.
On the justification for the establishment of the NMDC, the federal lawmaker lamented the incongruent manner in which the solid mineral industry had over the years found itself due to a lack of policy that could stimulate production and adhere to international best practices.
“However, NMDC seeks to develop upstream exploration and production, midstream mineral processing and metallurgy and downstream logistics, trade, and export which will catalyze investment in the entire mining value chain in Nigeria,” Al-Makura stated.
He further said, “The establishment of the NMDC will urgently address the challenges of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) currently facing state governments in Nigeria, as it would provide the much-needed revenue to deliver on the (current) administration’s priority areas of infrastructure development, social inclusion and poverty reduction, industrialization and job creation for the citizens of Nigeria.”
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According to him, upon the establishment of the corporation, initial funding shall be by way of a sovereign guarantee covering the sum of N5bn for the successful take-off of operation.
Similarly, Senator Yakubu Oseni, the vice chairman of the Senate Committee and sponsor of the second proposed legislation titled: Solid Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, deliberated on at yesterday’s session, expressed concern that the mineral sector in Nigeria had failed to meet the public expectation of driving economic growth and generating employment to the teeming youths.
“I am unsettled by the present pitiable contribution of the solid minerals sector to the nation’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“While many have attributed the situation to overdependence on crude oil, poor legal, regulatory and institutional framework and lack of up-to-date geoscience data that can facilitate investment decision making, I am ever optimistic that, with the right legislation and political will which the present administration is ready to muster, the situation can be turned around,” he opined.
