It is nolonger business as usual for exporters of unprocessed solid minerals as Kayode Fayemi, minister of Mines and Steel Development, has vowed to stop their activities.
The minister said at a town hall meeting with players in the industry in Lagos, organised by the ministry, that the federal government was collaborating with the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, and other relevant agencies to santise the industry.
According to him, the rate at which foreigners are moving into the nation’s mining sector is alarming and needs to be checked. He explained that the government would ensure such expatriates are legal players and if otherwise, would be sanctioned.
It came to light that many expatriates are mining solid minerals, prompting the local players and traditional rulers to petition the ministry in order to know who and what is required to engage in mining in their areas of jurisdiction.
“Mining is an international business. One of the things we have done is not to discourage foreigners. We cannot on the one hand be asking for foreign direct investment and encouraging ease of doing business because we want others who have expertise to be part of our economy, and on the other hand becoming xenophobic about the importance of those who have the resources or the technical expertise to be involved,” the minister said.
Fayemi added, however, that, “we cannot afford to have foreigners’ involvement to the detriment of our local engagement, so for jobs that our people have the capacity to do, we don’t allow in our ministry and we have a responsibility for anything happening in the mining industry. The Ministry of Interior sends us the citizenship of the expatriate application in order to comment on. And if you send us application in which you want to bring in drivers, machinists and operators from China or India, obviously we should not support or allow that.
If it is for a rare technical responsibility that we have no local expertise in, we do not have a choice than to allow such people to come in and do the work but we have a caveat that they must train other people in the sector who are the local in order to deliver on that.”

Anybody that wants ro legitimately operate in the sector would have to obtain the Cadastral from the ministry. The minister said the government would not sanction or shut down any firm that is able to present its approval document to the mining officers at the ministry, adding that strengthening partnership between the communities where minerals are located, the miners and the ministry is vital to the growth of the industry.