The federal ministry for Solid Minerals has sought the and got approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), to procure 50 Hilux Vehicles for members of the Special Mines Surveillance Task Force for their work at monitoring and curbing of illegal mining activities in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The move, according to the Solid minerals minister, John Kayode Fayemi, is also aimed at supporting the collaboration between the State and Federal Governments via the Mineral Resources and Environmental Committees that the Mining Act has allowed to be set up in all the states.
Minister Fayemi told news men shortly after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, today, Wednesday, that the memo he presented at FEC was aimed at showing the immense contribution of mining to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He said that in the latest figure of GDP, there is significant improvement in the industrial contribution after agriculture, as was released by the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS).
“It states that 8.97 percent increase has happened and the bulk of the contribution from the industry is from mining and quarry activities.
“But the primary reason for this memo is the fact that mining could still do a lot more in terms of its contribution.
“NEITI has just released its report and that report made it clear that in 2014 and 2015, what we lost to illegal mining operation was somewhere in the region of about $9 billion, particularly from illegal gold exportation.
“There were other things that were illegally taken out: lead, zinc, tin and coal.
“You recall that in the roadmap which the Federal Executive Council approved last year, there is the establishment of the Special Mines Surveillance Task Force.
“This memo that went to Council requested from Council the approval of the procurement of 50 Toyota Hilux Vans for the sum of N987 million at a set piece of about N19.3 million per vehicle. But it just forms part of an over-reaching framework because Council also underscores the fact that this one vehicle per state cannot solve all the problems but in order to begin to tackle the issues, we need to start from somewhere. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that we deploy technology to monitor the illegal activities across the length and breadth of the country and through the security services.
“The Special Mines Surveillance Task Force is made up of all security agencies. The DSS, the Police, the Civil Defence, EFCC and the National Security Adviser’s Office.”
Fayemi said that over the course of last year, the Police have established Mines Police “and we now have a Commissioner of Police in-charge of Mines Police. We have a Commandant from the Civil Defence also exclusively deployed for mines activities.”
The minister said that if Nigeria could stop the spate of illegal activities by Nigerians and some foreigners, the country would significantly improve the revenue that would come from the sector, increase the contributions to GDP, increase the royalty to government and provide more jobs for the citizenry.
“The other side of reducing illegal and informal activities is the formalisation of small scale miners and artisan miners and you may all be aware that recently, we placed N5 billion in the Bank of Industry to support the activities of Artisanal and small scale miners to formalise their operations, form into cooperatives and then get more capacitated by government.”
