By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

WITH the quest to ensure peace and harmony in the solid minerals sector, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, has called on operators, host communities and other stakeholders to strictly abide to the 2023 Community Development Agreement, CDA, Guidelines to avoid hostilities.

Alake made the call based on the issues affecting host communities and oil mining lease operators in the oil and gas sector, and hence developing the 2023 CDA Guidelines as a standard for operators and host communities including other actors to follow for peaceful co-existence in the solid minerals sector.

While explaining the essence of the ‘Revised 2023 Guidelines for the Production of Community Development Agreement in the Solid Mineral Sector’, the Minister pointed out that the document was developed to correct the shortcomings often associated with CDA documents previously submitted to the Ministry.

According to him, the target audience of the Guidelines includes Mineral Title Holders, Mining Community members, Civil Society Organisations, and others.

He said: “The CDA concept has been introduced in the solid minerals sector to promote harmonious and mutually beneficial relationships between the mining companies and their host communities. It has been included in the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007 to forestall in the solid minerals sector the repeat of social crises experienced in the Niger Delta region by the oil sector, which may undermine the present effort of the Federal Government aimed at diversifying our monolithic national economy.

“In order to facilitate the implementation of the CDA, in a rapidly growing solid minerals sector of our national economy, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development has developed a Guideline for use in the sector.

“The target audience/users are the mineral title holders, the mining community members and other elements of civil society, the CDA document writers and the general public.

“This Guideline has been developed, taking into consideration the shortcomings often associated with CDA documents previously submitted to the Ministry by mineral title holders, which eventually rendered them unacceptable.

“It is therefore very useful as it will ensure that CDAs produced for the solid minerals sector meet the requirements of extant laws.”

Meanwhile, the Guideline pointed out what are the key elements of a good CDA, which include the timeframe and process; stakeholder participation; capacity of participating stakeholders; community identification; community representation; funding the CDA process and the projects; obligation and responsibility; grievance and dispute resolution mechanisms; CDA implantation and monitoring.

According to the Guidelines as prescribed contents and writing format of the CDA in accordance with Section 193 (9) of the Nigerian Mining and Mineral Act, 2007, issues the CDA must address include programmes for the development of the community in the areas specified in the Act; The modalities for implementation and monitoring of the porogrammes contained in the agreement; Environmental protection; Compensation; Conflict management or resolution; Rights of the holder in relation to the mining area; Renewability of CDA after a period of five years; and Any other relevant issues.

Meanwhile, Section 116 of the Nigerian Mining and Minerals Act, 2007 also enumerates what the CDA may contain; undertakings with respect to the social and economic contributions that the project will make to the sustainability of such community as contained in Section 116 (2); Address all or some of the following issues when relevant to the host community – Employment opportunities for the indigenes of the communities; Education; educational scholarship technical training, construction of schools, and others; Vocational training empowerment; Provision of Health facilities and services; Social amenities- water, roads, power, and others; Financial or other forms of contributory support to other community services, and provision of market.