Reps moves for mines inspectorate agency

The Chairman of House Committee on Solid Minerals, Hon. Gaza Gbefwi, on Thursday, revealed that the House of Representatives is presently consulting for the establishment of a Mines Inspectorate Environmental Agency.

He said the agency would be expected to monitor miners to ensure better revenue for the country just like the Federal Inland Revenue Service handles taxpayers.

‘’The greatest challenge in the solid minerals sector is dealing with illegal miners and the fact that it does not have enough boots on the ground to tackle the scourge,’’ Gbefwi said.

The Honorable member said this at an event organised by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission and the United Nations Development Programme on policy dialogue with the national assembly in Abuja.

Gbefwi while speaking with journalists noted, “If Nigeria can have the resources coming from the Solid Minerals sector, Nigeria would be far ahead of its pairs within the sub-region because of the great endowment we enjoy in Solid minerals.

“Unfortunately, States have very lean manpower in terms of the inspection of mining sites at the state levels. What we are advocating for is to see that we increase the number of boots on the ground in the states where you have in each senatorial district, mines inspectorate offices that are established with adequate manpower that we hope would graduate into an independent entity that can be called the Mines Inspectorate Environmental Agency that would be in charge of compliance and give them independence and flexibility to operate.

“We know that one of the greatest challenges of this sector is illegal mining, once we can have adequate monitoring like FIRS monitors taxpayers, we will improve our revenue at the end of the day.”