The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has revealed that the Nigerian Government has adopted both coercive and persuasive strategies to combat illegal mining across the country, leading to the formation of more than 300 mining cooperatives.
Speaking to Journalists in Abuja at the sidelines of the Solid Minerals Excellence Awards, Alake said the government’s crackdown on illegal mining was not limited to arrests and prosecutions but also focused on formalising artisanal miners through cooperative structures.
“We developed a two-pronged approach, the coercive and the persuasive,” the minister said.
“The coercive is enforcement for those who are recalcitrant, while the persuasive involves talking to them, enlightening them and encouraging them to become part of the formal system,” he stated.
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According to him, the Nigerian Government has already apprehended hundreds of illegal operators, while more than 142 suspects are currently being prosecuted in courts across Nigeria.
“From illegal operators to legitimate owners, over 142 illegal operators are being prosecuted right now in various courts across Nigeria,” he emphasised.
Alake explained that under the persuasive approach, artisanal miners are encouraged to organise themselves into cooperatives so they can operate legally and contribute to government revenue.
The more concrete is the encouragement of artisanal and illegal miners to form themselves into cooperatives, whereby they no longer become illegal miners. They become structured, formalised and legitimised,” he said.
The minister noted that the cooperatives would enable miners to access loans, acquire equipment and operate within government regulations.
“Once they are licensed, they can pay royalties and taxes to the government, which increases revenue that was previously lost under the illegal system,” he explained.
Alake disclosed that the initiative has already yielded results.
“So far, we’ve had over 300 cooperatives already formed. That is helping us remove a lot of people from illegal mining through the persuasive method,” he said.
He warned, however, that operators who refuse to comply with the government’s formalisation programme would face strict enforcement measures through the mining marshals.
“But for those who refuse to go through the persuasive method, then the mining marshals, which is the coercive method, come in,” the minister emphasised.
On concerns linking some illegal miners to terrorism financing, Alake confirmed that some foreign nationals arrested through mining operations had been handed over to relevant security agencies for further investigation.
“You heard me on the podium that even some foreigners have been apprehended and are being prosecuted right now,” he said.
“For those suspected to have links with terrorism, we hand them over to the Counterterrorism Department under the Office of the National Security Adviser for further investigation and prosecution,” Alake stated.
The minister reiterated the Nigerian Government’s commitment to sanitising the mining sector and promoting local value addition as part of efforts to boost industrialisation, employment and economic growth under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
