By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja

THE Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, yesterday, lamented Nigeria’s 12th position in exploration budget compared with other African countries.

Alake expressed his concern at the opening session of the investigative hearing of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, declared open by President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, where he described the situation as “depressing”, while he referred to figures from Standard & Poor’s report, pointing $ 2.5 million was invested in 2023, which indicates that the country needs to upscale mining exploration investment.

According to him, poor funding for exploration and insecurity remain major bedeviling factors limiting the solid minerals sector’s performance, which needs increased budgetary allocation to boost the Ministry’s capacity to carry out detailed exploration of the nation’s vast mineral deposits in order to attract investors.

Meanwhile, Standard & Poor, a global rating agency, had ranked Nigeria’s exploration budget 12th in Africa while Ivory Coast clinched the top position with $147 million.

He said: “When we compare the exploration budgets of other African countries with ours, it is depressing.

“According to Standard & Poor, as of 2023, Nigeria’s investment in exploration was $2.5 million dollars against $147 million of Ivory Coast and $133m of Congo.

“In our determination to compete, we had proposed a budget of N70 billion to invest in exploration that would cover the entire Nigerian landscape.

“Going by the budget of Year 2024, our capacity to move at our desired speed may be undermined. We need your support to fund exploration and kit our personnel to regulate the sector.”

According to the Minister, Nigeria loses $9bn to illegal mining yearly, therefore, to effectively curtail activities of illegal miners and save Nigeria from this huge stealing and sabotage, the Ministry under his leadership recently unveiled 2,220 strong Mining Marshals, with 60 operatives deployed in each State of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, which already is yielding positive results within this short period, therefore boosting investors’ confidence in the mining sector.

On revocation of dormant mining licenses, he (Alake) explained to the Senate that, “There are at least four categories of illegal miners: the unlicensed miners; licensed miners mining outside their Cadastral Units; licensed miners mining minerals different from what they are authorized to mine and miners mining with licenses exclusively restricted to Nigerians. The country loses over $9 billion to illegal mining yearly.”

However, he also made it known that the Ministry is exploring other avenues to drastically reduce illegal mining operations which include an ongoing advocacy through Artisanal and Small Miners, ASM, extension officers, and the launch of a campaign on radio running on at least 113 radio stations across the country that will not only discourage the menace but targeted to making artisanal miners to form cooperatives and enjoy benefits of legalisation, which 152 cooperatives have already been formed across the country and still counting in line with the Minister’s 7-point Agenda.

With the new value-addition policy of the Federal Government in the solid minerals sector, the Minister hinted at the imminent establishment of six more processing centres across the six geo-political zones, stressing that with current efforts by the Ministry to effectively equip the mining marshal, and other reforms of the Ministry demand legislative backing for necessary statutes and improved funding.