The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office has issued 7,141 mining licenses, but only 1,000 are active, according to Director General Obadiah Nkom.

Mr Nkom said this while receiving the House Committee on Solid Minerals, led by Chairman Jonathan Gaza, at the NMCO office in Abuja on Tuesday.

He emphasised the need for reform, citing the recent review of mining fees and ownership of mining titles to sanitise the sector.

“We shouldn’t have 7,000 licences with less than 1,000 active mines,” he said, highlighting the discrepancy.

According to him, in spite of collecting over N8 billion in revenue as of October, the agency faces inadequate funding, which hampers its operations.

Mr Nkom appealed to the committee to address the issue, noting that the NMCO generated more than 50 per cent of the sector’s revenue but lacked collection fees.

He said NMCO had made significant strides in digitisation, transitioning from an intranet to a web-based platform for global access and transparency.

Mr Nkom said in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, guidelines have been developed to establish an anti-money laundering unit.

On his part, Mr Gaza expressed concerns about the licensing process, particularly the issue of consent, and the prevalence of illegal mining in spite of the large number of licenses issued.

Mr Gaza also highlighted the agency’s inadequate funding, which could impact productivity.

He said that the committee would present the situation to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, for appropriate action.

According to Mr Gaza, the aim of the committee’s oversight visit is to assess the performance of various agencies of the solid minerals ministry to ensure they contributed significantly to economic diversification

(NAN)