The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ministry of Mines and Steel Development

  • Why miners can’t access N5b fund

    Dearth of skilled manpower has stalled efforts, by the mining operators to access the N5billion World Bank intervention funds, the Director, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Ojeka Patrick, has said.

    He said World Bank provided N5billion in two tranches of N2.5billion each to the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), including small miners, adding that poor miners have not been able to access the funds, due to poor technical know-how.

    He said the development made stakeholders to organize training for the operators in the six-geo political zones of the country.

    In an interview with The Nation, he said a training programme is starting tomorrow, in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

    Read Also: Osun to register miners to prevent crime, says Oyetola

    He said the programme will provide operators with skills on how to prepare a bankable mining feasibility study, with a view to get funds for operation.

    Patrick, who also doubles as the Chief Executive officer, Council of Nigerian Mining Engineers and GeoScientists (COMEG), said the sub-sector needed more than N5billion for operation, in view of its huge potential.

    According to him, the N5billion is still in the custody of the Bank of Industry (BoI).

    Patrick said: “The knowledge gap in the sub-sector is huge and as a result of this, one cannot under estimate the importance of the training. This is in view of the fact that the Federal Government, has made efforts to enable the extractive industry, especially the mineral resources to access funds from the banking sector, to no avail.”

  • Earthquake: Fed Govt acquires device to monitor earth movement

    The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has installed high sensitivity seismometers and tilet meters for the monitoring and detection of earth movements and earthquake in the country.

    Mines and Steel Development Minister Bawa Bwari Abubakar dropped the hint yesterday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy to defend his ministry’s budget.

    Abubakar, who said that the device was acquired as part of the measures to address the country’s geological security, explained that the device was installed at the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) premises, Gwagwalada, Bwari and Kaduna.

    The minister said that the effort was accelerated in response to the earth tremors experienced in the country, especially around Abuja.

    He said that the proactive measure became necessary in order to predict, detect and monitor earth movement and earthquake-related activities.

    Abubakar listed insufficient and untimely release of funds, direct intervention by states in the management of mineral resources, multiple taxation by states and local government areas and inadequate geological data, as some of the challenges facing mining sector.

    Besides, he said that limited supporting infrastructure, insecurity of minefields, especially in Zamfara, Kaduna, Plateau and the Northeast, as well as illegal mining and community challenges were other obstacles.

    He noted that there was no doubt that the mining sector could do better if leakages were blocked.

    Committee ChairmanSenator Enyinnaya Abaribe urged the minister to furnish the panel with detailed breakdown of the budget.

    Read also: Japan cancels friendly with Chile after earthquake

    The committee believed that the revenue capacity of the sector should be raised for the country to benefit, adding that steps should be taken to position the sector to take its pride of place in the economic diversification policy of the Federal Government.

    The ministry proposed N20, 480,057,749 as its budget estimate for this year.

    Out of the amount, N8,559,365,940 is for personnel cost, N1,726,419,857 is for overhead while N10,194,271,952 is for capital projects.

  • Buhari approves new appointments

    President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of three Directors-General/Chief Executive Officers of three Agencies under the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.

    The President, according to a statement by Olusegun A. Adekunle, Permanent Secretary (General Services Office) in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, enjoined the new appointees to use their expertise and varied experiences to reposition and reinvigorate the agencies.

    He charged them to discharge their duties with utmost rectitude and sensitivity to Government’s commitment to enhancing mining and steel sector as a major driver of the Administration’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

    Read Also: Uproar in Senate over Buhari’s appointments

    The new appointments include Engr. Umar Albarka Hassan as Director-General/ CEO of the National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency (NSRMEA), Kaduna for initial period of four years, with effect from 12th July, 2018.

    For the National Metallurgical Development Centre, Jos, Prof. (Engr.) Linus Okon Asuquo, was appointed as the Director-General/CEO for initial period of four years, with effect from 12th July, 2018.

    Prof. (Engr.) Suleiman Bolaji Hassan was appointed as the Director-General/ CEO for Nigeria Institute of Mining and Geosciences, Jos, for initial period of four years, with effect from 12th July, 2018.

  • NSCDC intercepts stolen oil loaded in govt vehicle

    NSCDC intercepts stolen oil loaded in govt vehicle

    …Arrests suspects

     

    The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Bayelsa State Command, has intercepted stolen petroleum products conveyed in a vehicle belonging to the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.

    It was gathered that the vehicle, a Toyota Hilux van, which was used by the suspects to beat security checkpoints, was rounded up on Thursday in Yenagoa, by the anti-vandal team of NSCDC.

    One of the suspects identified as Philip Tuma confessed that he worked in the ministry and was allowed by the ministry’s authority to keep the vehicle with registration number 28A-36FG in his care.

    He, however, said his boss in the ministry knew nothing about his illegal mission of using the vehicle to transport stolen oil.

    Tuma said he embarked on the dirty deal in connivance with his younger brothers, who were idle at home following the ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    “I work in the ministry and was given the bus to keep as a worker. My boss has no knowledge of what I have done. This is my first time.

    “My younger ones, who are at home because of the ASUU strike convinced me to follow them because they needed money for their fees”, he said.

    Also, a female suspect, Mercy Ekereme, paraded for her alleged involvement in illegal bunkering, said she was arrested by NSCDC while trying to convey the products from Ogbia to Yenagoa.

    Ekereme, who hailed from Delta State, said she was once a hawker of sachet water but was introduced into the oil theft business by an unnamed woman.

    “The woman who introduced me into this oil business saw me selling pure water and said my pure water business was embarrassing. She helped me to get a loan and linked me with a dealer who gives me products to sell.

    “I got the product and decided to take them to Yenagoa. I met a man who came to buy fuel into a Hilux vehicle for his boss. We agreed on a fare and he decided to carry the products to Yenagoa. But we were arrested at Okaki”, she said.

    Speaking shortly after destroying some of the impounded products, the Deputy Commandant, NSCDC, Mr. Chikere Isidore, said the suspects would be prosecuted.

    “We are always in their trail and each time we intercept them, we arrest and prosecute them. You can see the suspects carried some of their products in a van of a known ministry to escape arrest. But they failed. Out men are always on the lookout”, he said.

    He said some of the impounded products were burnt because they were abandoned by suspects, who ran away on sighting operatives of NSCDC.

    He, however, said that other products at the command were arrested with their owners and were used as exhibits in court.

  • Ministry to part mining intervention funds to boost tiles production

    The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development said on Tuesday it would commit part of the mining intervention funds to support tile producers, to reduce importation gap.

    Dr Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, disclosed this during a tour to CIBI Nigeria Limited quarry in Buruku, Kaduna State.

    Fayemi said part of the fund would be drawn from the World Bank single digit loan and the N30 billion Mining Intervention Fund approved by the Federal Government last year, among others.

    According to him, the ministry is in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to offer loan facility from the intervention funds to ”serious minded people” already producing tiles.

    “We are working with the BOI to disburse the loans as soon as the intervention funds are released to serious tile producers across the country,” he said.

    He said the CIBI would have been able to produce more than 200,000 square metres being made annually from dimension stones, if adequate resources, including finance, equipment and others were in its reach.

    Fayemi said that Nigeria needed four million square metres of tiles annually, adding that all the local tile producers could only produce less than a million annually.

    “The bulk of tiles we use in Nigeria are imported from Italy, China and India, among others; we need to support them because we envisaged this in our roadmap.

    “We are endowed with lots of mineral resources; we have dimension stones everywhere but not exploited; there is no stone we don’t have in Nigeria,” he said.

    Alhaji Nuhu Wya, Chairman of CIBI, urged government to support its project, as there were more demands for tiles but it lacked sufficient capital to expand the business.

    Wya said the company usually received market orders from its customers two months before production.

    ”Our company needs long-term loans to run the business to increase tiles production that could reduce importation gap.

    “If investment put in oil industry is replicated in solid minerals, Nigeria does not need to depend on oil as its mainstay because we are blessed with mineral stones abundantly,’’ he said.

    The ministry’s roadmap to contribute to the nation’s GDP is to reduce importation of tiles and concentrate on the production.

    The minister, on March 13, commenced tour of mine fields across the country.