Comply With CDA Or Risk Sanctions – Alake

Mining firms in the country have been urged to comply with the revised Community Development Agreements (CDA) or stand the risk of sanctions.

Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake gave the warning in his keynote address at the maiden BusinessDay Solid Minerals Conference, titled “Digging Deeper: Diversifying Nigeria’s Economy for Wealth Creation” in Abuja.

Dr. Alake while reading the riot act to mining companies, explained that the era of disregarding the revised guidelines for Community Development Agreements (CDA) is over as government is poised to begin enforcement and mete out sanctions to defaulters, where necessary.

The Minister restated the commitment of the Tinubu administration to turning the mining sector into Nigeria’s new petroleum, urging BusinessDay to lead the fourth estate of the realm in propagating reforms and projecting the sector.

The Minister while Highlighting efforts to reposition the mining sector, emphasized that his 7-point agenda is well on course, stating that planning for the establishment of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation has reached an advanced stage as the process of creating an enabling law by the National Assembly to guide the operations of the institution is underway.

“In working with the legislature to establish the legal and legitimate foundation for the institution, our resolve to ensure that a share structure in line with private sector-led strategy in which the Federal Government will not hold more than 25%, the Nigerian citizens will by public shares hold 25 percent and private investors, each with a maximum of 10 percent of the shares of the N1 billion share capital will be achieved”, he said.

On Exploration data, Dr. Alake who revealed that the Federal Government is exploring funding options to undertake an ambitious integrated minerals exploration project that will produce a total and comprehensive coverage of all categories of minerals in the entire Nigerian landscape of 923,768 square kilometers noted that this may extend to coastal foreshores to explore opportunities in deep sea mining.

The Minister also informed his audience that President Bola Tinubu is taking the issue of security around mining sites and natural resources very seriously, hence the establishment of the inter-ministerial committee to roll out modalities for the new security architecture that will cater for mining, the marinel economy and forests.

According to Dr. Alake, Nigeria is improving ease of doing business in the mining sector by digitizing the mining application processes through Electronic Mining Cadastral System, eMC+, an online licensing application platform through which anyone in the world can apply for various categories of mining licenses and approvals.

“Efforts are also being made to improve the Nigerian Mining and Minerals Act 2007 to accommodate the changes over the years and make it more amenable to national priorities”, he stated.

Alake lauded the media organization for upholding the ethics of the journalism profession whilst lending its platform for independent and analytical dissemination of information to the citizenry.

“Going down memory lane, i recall the heroic strides of BusinessDay publisher, Frank Aigbogun in the struggle for restoration of democracy in the aftermath of the annulment of the June 12 elections, as the then editor of Vanguard newspapers, he provided the platform that sustained the struggle” Dr Alake stressed.

By Georgina Humphrey, Edited By Grace Namiji