The Federal Government lost over $3 billion to illegal gold miners miners in six years- from 2012 – 2018.
President Muhammadu Buhari, disclosed this Thursday at the official presentation of locally mined gold bars by the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMDI), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said government will earn over $500 million annually in royalties and taxes from improved gold mining operations. The sector also has capacity to generate more than 250,000 jobs. President Buhari assured on his administration’s commitment to establishing gold refineries in the country adding that the initiative would support job creation and diversification of the country’s revenue base.
‘‘With the implementation of the PAGDMI scheme which will result in the set-up of accredited gold buying centres across key mining areas, artisanal miners and SMEs engaged in mining will be able to capture the value of their work. ‘‘These operations will help in diversifying our revenue base. The sale of gold by artisanal miners and SMEs at accredited centers will help the government in realizing royalties and taxes from the sale of these assets. These developments will also help in improving our foreign reserves by enabling the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase the amount of gold in its reserves.
‘‘These gold assets which will be purchased in Naira, will not only help to bolster our international reserves, it will also provide a hedge against inflation and other economic volatilities associated with foreign currencies that are held in our reserves,’’ the President said.
President Buhari noted that in addition to the potential revenue gains that will occur from mining operations, efforts are being made to enable the setting up of gold refineries in Nigeria.
‘‘Enabling investment in the Solid Mineral sector, is a key part of the government’s economic diversification program. Given our current estimated gold reserves of over 200m ounces, most of which have not been exploited, developing sustainable programmes that will catalyse increased investment in the extraction and refining of gold sourced from mines in Nigeria, is indeed vital,’’ he said.
While emphasising the benefits of the PAGMDI, the president explained that it will support job creation efforts particularly for artisanal miners, by providing them with a guaranteed off take by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
According to him, efforts are being made to support artisanal miners in improving the standard of the gold that will be sold to the apex bank, in order to ensure that they meet international benchmarks.
He added that the initiative would enable the deployment of financing schemes that would help miners improve on the quality of their mining operations. ‘‘The gold buying programme by the Central Bank will ensure that artisanal miners are no longer subjected to the volatility in gold prices that occurs in the absence of credible off-takers, which has often led to a significant loss in the value of gold sold by miners, as well as in encouraging illegal smuggling,’’ he said.
