NMCO received 55,118 applications for mineral titles with electronic mining cadastre system plus – DG

Daniel Dauda, Jos

Director General of the Nigerian Mining cadastre office (NMCO), Federal ministry of solid minerals development, Dr. Obadiah Nkom, has stated that they have received about 55,118 applications for mineral titles with the introduction of electronic mining cadastre system plus (EMCS+) strategy.

Narrating a tremendous achievement recorded for over 16 months of electronic mining cadastre system plus, Nkom, assured working round the clock towards a robust application for mineral titles and modifications in the country.

The DG made the disclosure during a sensitization workshop on the adoption of EMCS+ by the mining sector stakeholders at the 59th Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) Annual International Conference and Exhibition (AICE), held between 17th to 22nd March, 2024 at National Museum and Liaison office, Jos.

He said mining cadastre is about administration and management of mineral titles all over the country.

“We are talking of no other country than Nigeria and looking at the mining and giving birth to the new system which earlier on had been an Internet system in a layman point of view, is computerised and not web based.

Now we have an electronic mining cadastre system which is almost 16 months old. And the essence is to be able to now give more services, make it more interactive.

The web based tends to allow stakeholders to have access and be able to now see the system the way it seems.

On what mining cadastre is doing to ensure they reduce or eliminate illegal mining bedeviling the sector, the DG posited that even though, there are challenges, but they are doing everything within their jurisdiction to ensure that everybody has a license before going into mining.

According to him, “but I can tell you that the sector is being organized and there is no level of organization that you can have and say it’s 100 percent. We will continue to work towards perfection.

“We have to be able to now work to ensure that at the end of the day, most of the activities that we have now are activities of artisanal.And we have artisanal license, small scale license.

“And there’s another department in the ministry called Artisanal and Small Scale department.The essence of that department is to be able to now organize this artisanal into cooperative and give them extension services.

Executive Secretary, represented by Dr.Bassey acknowledged mining cadastre office manages the granting of license, administration of license, and the sector generally  in terms of administration of the mineral titles.

“So mining character is very important because without a functional and transparent cadastre system whereby it has a greater level playing ground for mining title issuance, the sector will not develop properly and investors will not come in if we don’t have very transparent licensing regime in terms of granting of license.”