The governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has stated that Nigeria needs to stop the use of only community consent form to give companies licence for mining.

Speaking during the 60th annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS), the governor said this is preventing states from getting the right revenue from the sector.

While calling on professionals in the sector to create innovation that would transform the sector, he said the mining sector is the wealth of Nigeria and not in oil.

“So we must go beyond consent later to grant companies licence to mine, so when we realised it was going to be tough to do that in Nasarawa State, we introduced an executive order to say that anybody mining, especially in commercial quantity, that person must also process in here. That was the beginning of our law. This is because when I assumed office as the governor, there were 416 licences but the state was not getting N1m as revenue in that area. When we came up with that law, there was a lot of opposition but in the end, Nasarawa State is the home of so many processing plants.”

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake said the government has prioritized the deployment of geospatial data and remote sensing technologies for mineral exploration, reducing uncertainties and optimising investment decisions.

He said the ministry is working towards establishing mineral processing hubs to enhance value addition and reduce reliance on raw mineral exports.

The minister who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Mary Ogbe, affirmed the federal government’s resolve to create an enabling environment for innovation driven growth in mining and allied sectors.

The President of NMGS, Prof. Akinade Shadrach Olatunji, said agriculture and the application of innovative geoscience and mining solutions would lead to transformation of Nigeria’s economy.

“This has been realised by the industrialised world early enough and they all have first class geosciences and mining agencies that are well funded and manned with the best brains within their shores and in some cases, they go outside their shore to hire the best brains to run those agencies.”