By Soni Daniel

abuja—The Federal Government, yesterday took another bold step in consolidating ease of doing business in the mining sector with official unveiling of the Integrated Automated and Interactive GIS Web Portal of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.

The unveiling of the GIS Web Porter, which came barely a month after a World Risk Report on Global Mining sector rated Nigerian Mining jurisdiction as having a better investment risk profile, according to Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, underscored the government’s commitment to grow the sector.

Dr Fayemi who demonstrated some geological enquiries on the GIS web portal (portal.minesandsteel.gov.ng), during the inauguration, said the e-platform would aid the steady growth of the mining sector and contribute to the realisation of the administration’s goal of diversifying the economy’s revenue base, creating jobs, and broadening the range of economic opportunities available to Nigerians.

He said    with the launch of the portal, the country had now joined the league of jurisdictions in the global mining space that deployed technology towards achieving transparency and ease of doing business in mineral sector governance.

The Minister said the overall objective of the project was to increase provision of reliable information and knowledge to enhance promotion of investment in the sector using technology driven innovation.

According to him: “This would in turn help increase the sector’s GDP contribution significantly.

“Part of the deliverables of this project, among others, include: Business Processes Re-engineering, building of a GIS Web Portal with a Business Automation System, Content Management System (CMS), Geographic Information System (GIS), Decision Support System, collaboration and upgrade of the ICT Infrastructure of the Ministry.”

Fayemi, noted, while new technology would further reduce the time spent on various processes in the sector as information can now be assessed from any parts of the world, just as transaction could be done from any location.

He listed some of the tasks to be performed by the Web portal to include online processing of mining licenses and mineral titles application; online payment of royalties and fees; as well as database for revenue drive; business intelligence analysis, reports and statistical data generation.

Others include GIS mapping representation of resources within the country; Side stream along the mineral corridor, Deployment of Electronic Document Management System (EDMs); Provision of GIS Laboratory; Provision of Data Centre at Ministry’s Headquarters; Provision of Disaster Recovery facilities within Nigeria; Training on GIS, ERP, EDMs and portal navigation.