Fayemi

The Federal Government says it will release part of the N30 billion mining intervention funds soon.

Mr Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Steel Development, disclosed this during a town hall meeting with miners as part of his nation-wide tour on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, had promised that the fund would soon be released.

“The finance minister told the minister of state, Abubakar Bwari and I that the fund will soon be released to the sector; we are reasonably certain that it will be released before the end of the year,” he said.

He said the ministry set a template in the categories of miners that would be supported and benefit from the fund.

The categories of miners that would benefit include the artisanal miners, those that conducted explorations but did not have resources for exploitation, states in partnership with the ministry, and for exploitation.

He said the beneficiaries were figured out based on information gathered through the miners, interaction with the states and from the ministry’s roadmap.

According to him, the N30 billion will be drawn from the Natural Resource Fund, adding that it was the first time that such amount was approved for the development of the sector.

“The fund has been there; the natural resource fund is 1.6 per cent from the federal account and it is meant for the development of agriculture, mining and water resources sectors.

NAN reports that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the mining intervention fund during the Federal Executive Council meeting (FEC) in October 2016.

The two ministers of the sector had embarked on a nationwide tour to all mine sites to build stakeholders’ confidence, get feedback from them, identify challenges and proffer solutions.

The ministers have  so far visited Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun, Nasarawa and Benue states. (NAN)