The Federal Government has made over N500million from the renewal of dormant mining licences, as the 30-day ultimatum given to owners of dormant mining licences to renew them elapses today, Thursday, March 31.
More than half of the owners of the dormant licences published for revocation have for the past few days been scurrying to beat the deadline to avoid losing the licences.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, had over a month ago warned that government was set to revoke over 1,500 mining licences and leases on account of dormancy.
A source in the ministry, saidNigeria has been losing a lot of money from the non operation of the licences and about 8,000 jobs have not being created as a result of it.
“As the revocation deadline drew near, a lot of people have been rushing over to renew their licences. Over N500million has so far been raised so far from dormant licence owners coming to renew their licences which is good for the country. These dormant leases were just sitting there and not generating any revenue for the country,” the source said
“The truth is that if these licences were active, it would have created about 8,000 jobs which were not there because the licences were dormant. But with the re-activation of these licences, jobs will be created in the industry.”
