NEITI To Legitimize Illegal Miners

Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, Acting Executive Secretary, NEITI

Nigerian Extraction Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) will soon legitimize all illegal miners spread across the country.

The Nation report continues:

Acting Executive Secretary, NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya, said the initiative is seeking for an enabling environment to make their work look legitimate so that they can pay taxes, saying the current status where illegal miners dominate the sector, can no longer be ignored.

He stated this yesterday in Abuja, when the management team of NEITI paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

His words: “We have spoken to the Minister on illegal mining, they call them illegal miners but we in NEITI call them artisanal miners, if we chase them away, they come back, they dominate the sector and they can no longer be ignored so we are looking at how, as has been done in countries like Ethiopia to find an enabling environment to make their work look legitimate so that they can pay taxes because we have only sixty five companies that are covered in the solid mineral sector but if field they are more, many of them do small, small businesses, if you tax those small businesses, it will create a lot of revenue.

“We are aware of the enormous work that has commenced in the ministry, we feel it is important that NEITI visits the ministry to share information and date that will help the ministry in the ongoing reforms. We are aware that the oil industry globally is in crises and most countries that depends on oil are looking inwards for alternative means of survival and the solid minerals ministry in our country is better positioned.

“We reached out to the minister to share with him on the job we have done and how the solid mineral ministry can help alleviate the pressure that the government is going through currently as a result of the crises in the oil industry.”

Fayemi said in the face of the dwindling fortune of the oil and gas sector, the country clearly has to look for alternative source of revenue in the country.

His words: “This is a government that is completely focused on transparency in a every sector, not just the extractive industry, it is just that the extractive industry happens to be a major focus because it is a major revenue earner for our country.

“In the face of the dwindling fortune of the oil and gas sector, we clearly are looking at alternative, revenue sources for the country and alternative employment opportunities for our people. Some of the work presented really points clearly on what we really have to do in order to increase the level of resources available in the country.

“You have managed to expose in your report the hidden revenue that is being generated that is not recorded either in our inland revenue sources or ministries royalties that is clearly going to assist us as we move ahead in our policy formulation strategy.”