Miners in Nigeria to access low interest loans
Nigeria’s Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekun Adegbite has disclosed that artisanal miners in the country can now access loans at a low interest rate.
The low interest rate fixed by government for artisanal miners is part of its effort to encourage diversification of the economy. The miners can access as much as N100 million loan at only five per cent interest rate and the loan repayment could span for a period of 20 years.
The minister said the miners need to form or register with cooperatives to ease access of the government financing and provision of equipment. He explained miners could form cooperatives of 10 people when approaching the ministry for the loan to make the process seamless.
“I was told we have more than a thousand cooperatives that have registered with us. Some of them have successfully transited from artisanal miners to small-scale miners. There are still many of them out there but we are winning because we are winning them over with incentives. So, because they are working, they are paying revenue to government by paying their royalty, so it is a win-win situation. Once the miners come together to form cooperatives, the ministry will give them the appropriate equipment and license and once the miners were registered, they would benefit from all incentives of the government like training and free tools,” he said.
In addition, Mr Adegbite said his ministry was working with security agencies to curb illegal mining in the country. He said the collaboration had become necessary in view of rising cases of illegal mining. The ministry was working particularly with the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to ascertain the visa status of foreign nationals.
