The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arch. Olamilekan Adegbite has said that the Ministry has registered about 1 ,495 mining cooperatives with each having over 10 members.
The minister who stated this at the asm mining support fund workshop held at Blue Spring Hotel, Abuja Tuesday, pointed out that out of the 1,495 registered mining cooperatives, 140 are gold mining cooperatives. How’s, the North West has the highest numbers of registered cooperatives while the South East has the least.
According to him, the ASM formalization policy of the government is indeed an instrument of poverty alleviation, empowerment and job creation.
“Beyond this, some of the artisanal operators have up scaled their operations and transformed into small-scale mining firms operating with valid mineral titles. The private mineral buying centres initiated by the government have ensured that artisanal miners have access to market through the formal economic system.
So far, the Ministry has registered 368 Private Mineral Buying Centre operators, across the country.
He noted that mining in Nigeria is still largely artisanal based, which was why the Ministry created a department called Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, to provide institutional support for artisanal miners who form the bulk of the operators and manpower in the sector.
“Through this department we have continuously engaged all stakeholders to ensure the formalization of the artisanal miners into cooperative groups for easier management and access to financial support and commodity markets.
Indeed, one of the core pillars of President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic policy is the repositioning of the mining sector as a way of diversifying the economy to create wealth and jobs, to increase contribution to GDP, and expand the range of economic opportunities available to Nigerians.
Towards the attainment of these goals, the administration initiated a slew of reforms to reposition the minerals and metals sector for sustainable growth and development.
One of the significant reform strategies was the development of a Roadmap for the Growth and Development of the Nigerian Mining Industry, to unleash the enormous potential in the sector and to guide the investment decisions of the Ministry over the next two decades.
The Roadmap was graciously approved by FEC on 31st August, 2016 for implementation, and the benefits are coming almost every day,” he said.
The workshop brought together industry operators from across the country to deliberate on how best to access the support fund for Artisanal and Small Scale Miners.
Furthermore, the Ministry has continued to ensure that host communities to mining activities receive the socio-economic benefits of such ventures through the Community Development Agreements in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development said.
“To facilitate this, the Ministry produced guidelines for the provision of CDA in the mining sector. So far, through the community development projects more than 250 mining communities have benefited from rural road infrastructural facilities, borehole projects, class rooms and scholarship programmes as a result of mining operations within their areas.”
