By Emmanuel Adeleke
In line with the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, has paid a maiden tour to agencies under the ministry, canvassing reforms and adherence to due process.
In a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori, on Wednesday, the minister lauded efforts of Mining Cadastral Office (MCO), as the custodian of mineral titles, stressing the need to do more in addressing perceived inadequacies.
He emphasised that the perception of progress in the mining sector is contingent on the activity or inactivity of MCO.
Alake charged the agency to improve on its productivity, stressing that whatever infractions committed by MCO has a smearing effect on the ministry, as it is the major agency that interfaces with the public.
“The public puts this agency in the prism of the entire ministry. Since I assumed office, 90% of all issues that have come to my table on the entire solid mineral activities have been connected to the MCO, whether complaints, commendations, infractions or otherwise. The issues around multiplicity or duplicity of licenses and perceived underhand dealings traceable to the agency must be addressed. The perception must change. We will not hesitate to wield the big stick where necessary, if the agency does not reform itself,” the minister said.
He, thereafter, moved to the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), where he said the functions of the agency cuts across all sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, industrial development, saying it is akin to the foundation of developmental efforts of any nation.
“I must say you are doing a good job generating a lot of relevant data that are critical for informed decisions by decision makers, entrepreneurs in all fields. I have gone through the literature submitted during my initial briefing, and I can see at a glance the functions that you do and I am quite glad that you have been living up to the billing and performing quite effectively. But there is always room for improvement. These days of paucity of funds, like you mentioned, it becomes imperative that we become genius of our creative endeavours. We must task ourselves on how to become independent. I see no reason why NGSA cannot be self-sustaining because what you generate is in demand,” the minister said.
Alake also visited the Council of Nigerian Mining Engineers and Geoscientists (COMEG), where he likened the agency to a quasi-academic institute in view of its role of accrediting and certifying mining professionals.
He noted that COMEG is assisting to ensure quality control in the solid mineral sector, assuring that he would ensure the agency is captured in the budgetary allocation for the coming fiscal year.
“While we do our own bit of ensuring you have budgetary provisions, it can never be enough. My advice is to be creative. Sit down with members of your team and think out of the box. One way is increasing your membership fees. Whoever does not pay, you have a restriction on them. On our own part, and henceforth, any report from the extractive industry or mining engineers that does not contain the COMEG stamp should not even be brought to my attention,” he said.
Speaking, the Director-General of MCO, Engr. Obadiah Nkom, who restated the functions of the agency as the issuer of mining licenses, expressed delight in being the first agency to host the minister.
He explained that MCO moved in 2022 to digitise its operations through migration to an online platform called Electronic Mining Cadastral System.
According to him, though the new platform led to a significant number of applications, he admitted some challenges such as delays in processing applications as a result of backlogs from the old system.
Nkom assured that efforts are ongoing, in collaboration with World Bank assisted Mineral Sector Support for Economic Diversification (MinDiver), to fine-tune the processes and make it more efficient .
In the same vein, the Director-General, Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), Dr. Abdulrasak Garba, disclosed that the agency has been pivotal to the generation of geosciences information for the development of the mining sector in line with its mandate.
He stressed that the NGSA has been in charge of the production of geological, geophysical and geochemical maps of Nigeria, amongst other functions.
