TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration is working on launching a platform where mineral rights applications can be submitted and processed.

In a speech to mark the celebration of the June 12 Democracy Day, the president said the platform would help to block revenue leakages in the mining sector.

Mining rights allow the holder to carry out mineral exploration activities.

“With foreign and domestic investments and the participation of small scale miners, we are harnessing the supply value chain in gold production,” he said.

“We would also be launching a fully digitized mineral rights management platform for quick processing of mineral rights application, digitization of records and plugging revenue leakages.”

Buhari said his administration has continuously sought out ways to improve the ease of doing business which, he says, is evident in the improved ranking on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index.

“Nigeria has risen by 25 places on the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking from 146th to 131st and is now rated as one of the top ten reforming countries.

“This development is due to the visa on arrival policy, consistent promotion of initiatives that expand facilities available to micro, small and medium-scale enterprises, robust electronic registration and payment system seamless processing of business registration and reduction of cost of registering business by 50%.”

Nigeria has been dealing with issues of illegal mining and on different occasions, arrested foreigners involved in illegal mining in different parts of the country.

Two of such incidents happened in May; one involving 27 persons, 17 of whom were Chinese nationals and another 10 Chinese citizens and a Ghanian.

The mining sector contributed 8.85% to the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 although crude petroleum and natural gas exploration accounted for 97.11% of the activities in the sector.