.MCO DG solicits NASS support to transform mining sector

Senate Committee Chairman on Solid Minerals Development, Engr. Osita Ngwu, on Monday, commended Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (MCO), for its migration to electronic Mining Cadastre System – eMC+ in line with best practices.

Its said that the government is having a new direction from oil to solid minerals, added that administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is serious developing the economy through the mineral sector.

Engr Ngwu, disclosed in Abuja, during his familiarisation visit to MCO, assured the agency of his full support to make the desired progress in the mining sector. He commended the Director-General of MCO, Engr. Obadiah Simon Nkom, and his team for the continuous rise in its revenue profile since inception, said: “The Government is looking at gas exploration and solid mineral but we know the challenges of the solid mineral industry, putting all this challenges together, we are going to look at the legislative framework and get the system working.

“My visit here is to familiarise myself with the agency and not to ask questions because we are still studying what is going on and looking at the policy direction of the government because the government has to direct, ours is to support, oversight and put up legislative framework to make sure that the government succeed.

Nigeria is important to everybody we’re all going to work as a team together to make sure that the country move forward.” While pledging the unfailing support of National Assemble and partnership with the agency, he added that, “There will be meetings that we are all going to do that will require us to make contributions and the bottom line is for us to achieve the set objectives and support the government.”

In his remarks, the Director-General of Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, Engr. Obadiah Simon Nkom, noted that the agency’s mandate is to grant mining licence across the country, said that MCO is the only legal way to mining industry.

The DG solicited the assistance and inputs from the National Assembly to improve Mining Cadastre Office and transform the mining sector in the country. The DG explained that MCO is made up of multi-disciplinary professions, with the technical department consists of the mining engineers, Geologists, surveyors among others adding that major reforms like migrating to a web-based online (real time mineral title administration system has led to investor’s confidence.

Nkom said: “We have an organisational structure and we have the Zonal Offices in six geopolitical zones with various departments and staff being able to have different functions. “The mining cadastre is made up of multi- disciplinary professions where the technical department particular, the mining engineers, geologists, GIS experts, computer scientists and the supporting departments, the admin, finance, procurement, most importantly, the legal department.”

Engr. Nkom noted that the agency since inception has enjoyed a near 100% success in litigation which ranges from communities and other conflicts. He added that, “Our legal unit is very strong because anywhere you have wealth, you will know that there are always challenges and people has reasons to go to court. So far so good, since the inception of mining cadastre and we have series of litigations and irrespective of that we have a near 100 per cent success in litigations.”