The Federal Government has said more mining licences will be revoked as part of ongoing efforts to sanitise the solid minerals sector and protect investors from fraudsters.
The Director-General of the Mining Cadastre Office, an agency of the Federal Government, Obadiah Nkom, disclosed this on Thursday during a live conversation on X (formerly Twitter), themed “A deep dive into the Mining Cadastre Office: Driving transparency and order in Nigeria’s solid minerals sector.”
According to him, the clean-up exercise, which covers expired, speculative, and inactive titles, is necessary to make room for genuine investors and ensure compliance with the law.
Nkom disclosed that the agency had identified about 4,709 licences, including 1,400 expired titles, 2,338 refused applications, and 971 notifications of grant where applicants failed to pay, leading to an outright revocation by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake.
Speaking during the live session over three hours, the DG stressed that the revocation was not punitive but part of a deliberate sanitisation process to weed out speculators who hoard licences without adding value to the economy. Nkom explained that the exercise had already boosted investor confidence in the sector.
He said, “When you talk about backlog, for now, the ministry has had reasons to clear or revoke close to 4,709 mineral licenses. There were implementations in terms of revoked expiring titles of up to 1,400 licenses. We have had reasons to refuse applications in the system, 2,338. We have had a mineral title notification of 971. Can you imagine 971 notifications of grants that were notified, but did not come to pay?
“There are even instances where some people have collected the grants, but they refuse to pay. So what do we do? So this cleaning exercise that we are doing is to be able to now create that space in the minefield for people. So, imagine having over 4,709 erased from our system by way of revocations implemented. It has sanitised our sector, and investors now know that if they are not going to be involved in exploration and value addition, there will be consequences.
“We are cautious. We follow the law. And this is why I repeat, we have had 100 per cent success in litigations because we are an agency compliant with the provisions of the Act. Where we are wrong, we are not shy away from trapping ourselves and doing the right thing. I would hope that at the end of the day, we will not have any risk by following the provisions of the Act.”
Recall that the minister in 2024 revoked 924 licenses over failure to pay statutory charges and fees due for the Federal Government through the Mining Cadastral Office, warning licensees yet to resume work on their mining projects to do so immediately.