Nigerian miners say the new solid minerals minister, Kayode Fayemi, must facilitate adequate funding of artisanal and small-scale players, help provide adequate data and new technology, while creating a platform that will ramp up the skills of the stakeholders.
They further say that the new minister must chart a new roadmap that will bring illegal miners into the mainstream, to ensure they contribute substantially to government revenue, create more jobs and help shore up the naira.
Shehu Sani, president, Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), said despite that the mining sector is capital intensive, there has not been any government initiative to encourage a private sector driven credit system.
According to Sani, this situation has prompted Nigerian miners to aggressively plan a new microfinance bank that will help fund small-scale miners.
“We also want new technology and machines that are in the mining industry across the globe. We also do not have the expertise. There is also a problem with inadequate data,” Sani said, in a telephone interview.
He further observed that artisanal miners need to be formalised, adding that illegal mining should not bother the new minister.
“The World Bank made an observation that illegality should not be an issue. The issue is poverty and illegal mining is a poverty-oriented phenomenon. One of the things we should do, is to formalise them,” he added.
Sani further noted that miners in the country have ready markets for products, stressing that the oil revenue drop should push the new government into making the industry revenue generating, as a means of diversifying the economy.
“We have industries that need these minerals. Unfortunately, some companies are exporting them. Small-scale miners should be encouraged to conserve the foreign exchange,” he explained.
Nigeria has 34 identified solid minerals, but only 13 are actually being mined, processed and marketed, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Some of these minerals found in the country include kaolin, baryte, limestone, dolomite, feldspar, glass sand, ganstones , gold, iron ore, lead-zinc, tin (and its associated minerals), and gypsum.
According to the NBS, Africa’s largest economy loses $1 billion annually from its inability to exploit and export coal, which is in high demand in the international market, owing to its low sulphur.
“The problem here is that there is inadequate data that can be relied upon for investment decision,” said Patrick Odiegwu, partner in Anthracyte Limited, a general earth science company.
“Banks have not provided support, maybe because they do not understand the industry. We also expect a development of market-to-site extension services,” Odiegwu told BusinessDay.
He added that what is needed currently formalise informal activities in the sector , stressing that illegal mining should not worry the new minister.
Many solid minerals are lying latent owing to lack of skilled manpower to carry out exploration and beneficiation activities.
This is having a negative impact on industries, as they now import these locally available minerals from abroad.
Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, director-general, Raw Materials and Research Development Council (RMRDC), said at a stakeholders’ forum in Abuja in July 2014 that cement makers spend $20 million annually on importation of gypsum, which is an essential industry input.
According to Patrick Oaikhinan, CEO, Epina Technologies Limited, the new minister should therefore address the critical problem of skills shortage in the industry.
“Take ceramics as an example, what you have is lack of significant number of professionals with appropriate skills and expertise to exploit these minerals,” Oaikhinan said.
‘’What I think we need now are the enabling laws to encourage investors,” he stressed, while calling for an academy that will take care of the challenge.
ODINAKA ANUDU
