Miners urge FG to invest more on mining to boost Nigerian economy

The Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Bauchi State chapter, has called on the Federal Government to invest more capital into the mining sector to boost the economy of the country.

Alhaji Bello Galoji, the state Chairman of the association, made the appeal in an interview on Monday in Bauchi.

Galoji explained that proper harnessing of the mining sector in the country would depend less on oil and gas, and would pave way for the mining industry to flourish.

“Nigeria should invest heavily into mechanise mining rather than manual mining especially using items like diggers.

“By the time we are fully mechanised, human hands can only be used for directing and regulating, among others.

“So, for us to advance a lot needs to be done, we need to have adequate funding for miners to inject in their businesses,’’ the chairman said.

According to him, mining has to be mechanised saying: “If you are going into mechanised mining, you need bulldozer, excavators, dredgers, and compressors, whereby you have to blast and open the ground.”

Galoji noted that Nigeria has capable and best hands in the mining sector.

He added “we have the knowledge, we have the experience and professionals in the academics but we lack funding’’.

He regretted that 80 per cent of mining activities in the country are done manually with bare hands, noting that the highest number of miners being artisanal due to lack of funds.

Galoji disclosed that the capital base for a small scale miner is over 250 million dollars.

“Capital has always been the challenge because one must own at least not less than four to five excavators and two to three bulldozers, among others, to start a mechanise mining,” he said.