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| Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, |
Olamilekan Adegbite, the minister of mines and steel development, claims that the ministry's 2023 budget has no funding for the fight against unlawful mining.
The House of Representatives Committee on Steel organised a budget defence session in Abuja on Tuesday, where the minister announced this.
According to Mr. Adegbite, "We do not have any funding for security or to pursue illegal miners; there is nothing in our budget for it."
According to him, N37.2 billion has been set aside for the ministry and its ten parastatal organisations in 2023.
He broke down the funds as follows: N25 billion for capital expenditures, N2.05 billion for overhead, and N10.06 billion for staff costs.
According to the minister, the Multilateral and Bilateral Tied Loans for Mineral Sector Development Projects loan from the World Bank is for N21.7 billion.
He said if that was taken off, the ministry would be left with only N3.26 billion for capital expenditures as the ministry had no control over the repayment of the N21.7 billion.
“We are trying to tighten security on the sophisticated activities of illegal miners through the surveillance task force in collaboration with the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).
“We are working with the NSA, which has made a robust proposal to the president. If this proposal is acceded to, we should see some improvement in how we can deal with illegal miners in 2023,” he said.
He said efforts would be made to tighten security on the increasing and sophisticated activities of the illegal miners.
The minister also told the committee said that the focus of the 2023 budget is to improve the revenue-generating capacity of the ministry to contribute to foreign exchange earnings.
Mr Adegbite said adequate attention was given to improving miners’ health and safety and increasing investment drive to attract foreign investors.
On the 2022 budget performance, the minister said the ministry generated N7.2 billion in revenue, expressing hope to hit N10 billion before the year runs out.
On reviving the Ajaokuta Steel Company revival, the minister said N109 million was provided in the 2022 budget to concession the company.
He said that the process was ongoing and that the ministry was working to ensure the right hands took over its operations, expressing hope that it would start running in two years’ time.
Earlier of the chairman of the committee, Abdullahi Ali (APC-Kogi), noted that Nigeria was facing a lot of economic uncertainties.
He also noted that Nigeria’s economic challenges resulted largely from over-dependence on crude oil.
Mr Ali said the committee was interested in implementing measures to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Company and the steel sector in 2023.
(NAN)