A total of 120 youths and women in Plateau State have been trained by the Federal Government on artisanal and small-scale mining.
According to The PUNCH, the Chairman of RMAFC, Research and Development Committee, Mr Ajasin Tokunbo, made this known at a week-long capacity building, which was done through the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, in Jos on Friday.
Tokunbo noted that over the years, the commission saddled with the constitutional responsibility to monitor accruals into and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account had observed that revenue accruals into the account from the solid mineral sector had been abysmally low compared to that from hydrocarbon.
“The government has been making concerted efforts to diversify the nation’s economy away from over-dependence on hydrocarbon to other sectors such as solid mineral, manufacturing, and tourism, among others, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
“The Artisanal and Small Scale Miners constitute about 80% of the Nigerian Mining sector but contribute negligibly to the federation account due to the informal nature of their operations.
“Hence, the federal Government is working assiduously with organizations such as the UNDP and the EU to ensure that the informal ASMs are encouraged to formalize their activities and adequately trained for utmost performance so that the country can benefit from their activities and at the same time avoid being exploited by the so-called big operators in the sector.
“These activities were aimed at identifying the challenges being experienced by the ASMs while emphasizing the need for stronger collaboration with the sub national governments towards addressing the challenges.
“The aim of the project is to address specifically the problems of Tin Artisanal and Small Scale Miners and the possibility of formalizing their activities through registered Cooperatives in order to capture them into the tax net and consequently boost revenue from the sector into the Federation Account,” the chairman who was represented by the Vice Chairman, Ambassador Ayuba Nubaco said.
