The Federal Government has revoked additional 924 dormant mining licenses.

Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, who announced this in Abuja, decried the racketeering of the issuance of the licences.

He told newsmen on Wednesday, April 24 that mining licence racketeering was impeding the development of the sector and obstructing genuine investors from showing interest in Nigeria’s mines.

Licences revoked were 528 for exploration; 22 mining leases, 101 quarry licences and 273 small-scale mining licences.

The minister explained that a grace period of 30 days was given to defaulters to rectify their statuses, and to state reasons for dormancy on the sites allocated to them in line with Constitutional provisions.

He said that 963 licences were published in the official gazette of the Federal Government in December 2023 awaiting revocation.

Out of these, only 39 of the listed licence holders responded to the warning as they either moved to site immediately or they stated challenges hindering their operations, he added.

Alake stated that the revocation of the licences was taken to sanitise and reposition the mining sector to boost Nigeria’s economic profile and to accelerate its industrialisation.

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He noted that the “first-come, first-served” rule in the licencing regime was a disincentive for genuine investors as the rule prohibited issuance of fresh licence on a site already allocated.

The minister warned that henceforth, the Federal Government will not tolerate the nefarious activities of license racketeering or those that obtain licenses for speculation in order to offer them to the highest bidder.

According to Alake, “Investors across the globe are now free to apply for any of the affected Cadastral Units on the basis of “first come, first served. ” It is our belief that this decision will sanitise the licensing system by penalising those who have commercialised the opportunities offered by the sector into a bazaar.

“A good lesson from this exercise is for investors to do their homework and be ready to flag off their projects as soon as they obtain licenses. Nigeria is open for business, and we shall encourage smart, serious, and adventurous investors to set up and provide jobs to our teeming youths.”

The ministry revoked 1,663 mining licences in November 2023 because of failure by licensees to pay statutory charges and other dues to the Federal Government.

Alake said that following the revocation of the 1,663 licences in 2023, government received a lot of pressure to reconsider the punitive measure.

According to him, in response to the pressure, government issued a policy for defaulters to make restitution and show remorse in order to be considered for reinstatement.

He said that the restitution varied depending on the category of licence revoked.

“The highest, which is on mining attracts a restitution of N10 million per revoked licence payable to the Federal Government.

“For the small-scale licences, the restitution is N7.5 million for reinstatement and for exploration licence, the restitution is N5 million,” Alake said.

The Star