The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development says issuance of mining titles will soon be reduced to between 30 and 45 days as stipulated in the Nigerian Mining and Minerals Act, 2007.

The Minister Dr Kayode Fayemi disclosed this at the ongoing second Nigerian Mining Week, organised by the Miners Association of Nigeria, in partnership with IPAD Nigeria, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Spintelligent on Tuesday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that issuance of title to investors used to take as long as three months and above with a lot of follow-ups from such investors.

Fayemi said that this was as result of significant improvement in the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) administration of mineral titles, adding that it had met the target of consistently issuing licenses to applicants within stimulated time.

He said that the ministry had created a portal to serve as a one-stop-shop online interface to incorporate all Cadastre functions to integrate the ministry with all its agencies.

“What this means is that anyone from any part of the world can access our cadastre properties online, apply for licenses, make statutory payments, track progress on requests and applications among others.

“We are previewing this portal at this conference ahead of its launch in November,’’ he said.

According to him, the Nigeria Mining Week is not just a networking platform but a learning arena for existing businesses that want to grow their activities as well as an avenue for new comers prospecting the Nigerian mining jurisdiction.

He said that the Mining Week comprises an innovative array of workshops and roundtables, designed to help participants find the perfect match of partners or collaborators and get answers to their questions.

The Minister said that covering the entire value chain of the industry, the event would seek to catalyse the Federal Government’s priority agenda of repositioning the mining sector as one of the frontiers of the nation’s economic diversification agenda.

He said that the 2017 edition of the Mining Week came during a season of interesting developments in the Nigerian Mining Sector following the launch of the roadmap for the development of the mining sector last year.

“We have covered a lot of grounds on our way to addressing historical sector challenges and de-risking the Nigerian Mining Sector for sustainable growth,’’ he said.

Fayemi said that the ministry’s aspiration was to build a world class minerals and mining ecosystem designed to serve a targeted domestic and export market for minerals and ores.

“We seek to rebuild market confidence in our minerals and mining sector and win over domestic users of industrial minerals to achieve import substitution.

“We are therefore pleased to see improvements in perceptions about the Nigerian Mining Jurisdiction.

“It has been our objective to turn the tide of popular but inaccurate narratives about Nigeria by emphasising the strong points about the Nigerian mining sector that are seldom taken into account by the international community,” he said.

He said that the report recently released by the World Risk Report, published by the Mining Journal indicated that Nigeria had made remarkable improvements in both hard risk and perceived risk factors.

According to Fayemi, the Nigerian Mining Jurisdiction is now considered to have a better investment risk profile than Russia, China, India and several other leading jurisdictions.

“Nigeria is now “perceived” to have a better investment risk profile than New York, according to the report,’’ he said.

The minister said that the ministry had improved Sectoral Access to Finance; we have come a long way in systematically de-risking the Nigerian mining sector and attracting investment and development funding.

He said that the ministry in collaboration with the Bank of Industry (BOI) has launched a N5 billion fund to provide single digit interest loans to mining projects in Nigeria.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola said that diversification by this administration was conceived during its campaign to improve Nigerian economy.

Fashola said that his ministries and that of the Mines and Steel Development shared things in common; adding that most of the equipment and resources needed for road construction, power and housing were being generated and provided by miners.

According to him, the Federal Government is planning to construct 3050 megawatt hydro power plant in Taraba with the sum of 5.9 billion dollars.

He said that the Federal Government had just raised N100 billion for road construction.

According to him, the coal to power project initiative in Kogi is almost concluded as the ministry of mines and steel have given licenses to private investors that bided for the project to boost power supply in Nigeria (NAN)

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