The Federal Government has put in place preventive measures against occurrence of Earthquake in any part of the country by acquiring and installing sensitivity seismometers and tilet meters for monitoring and detection.
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Hon. Bawa Bwari Abubakar, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy to defend his ministry’s 2019 budget.
Abubakar who said that the earth movement monitoring device was acquired as part of the measures to address the country’s geological security explained that the device was installed at the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) premises, Gwagwalada, Bwari and Kaduna.
The minister said effort was accelerated in response to the recent persistent earth tremors experienced in the country most especially around Abuja.
He said that the proactive measure became necessary in order to predict, detect and monitor earth movement and earthquake related activities.
He listed insufficient and untimely release of funds, direct intervention by states in the management of mineral resources, multiple taxation by states and local governments and inadequate geological data, as some of the challenges facing the mining sector.
The minister also listed limited supporting infrastructure, insecurity of mine fields especially in Zamfara, Kaduna, Plateau and North East and illegal mining and community challenges.
He stated that there was no doubt that the mining sector could do better if leakages were blocked.
The committee Chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, asked the minister to furnish the committee with detailed breakdown of the budget.
The committee believed that the revenue capacity of the sector should be raised for the country to benefit.
The committee also said steps should be taken to position the sector to take its pride of place in the scheme of things in the country.
The ministry proposed N20,480,057,749 as its budget estimate for 2019.
Out of the amount the sum of N8,559,365,940 is for personnel cost, N1,726,419,857 is for overhead while N10,194,271,952 is for capital projects.
