Nigeria mulls expansion of N200m small-scale miners fund

With the successful disbursement of the N200 million fund to artisanal miners, the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development is considering the expansion of the programme for more small-scale miners to benefit.

Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, Minister of Mines and Steel Development. said this when he appeared on the forum in Abuja.

Adegbite said the over 3.2 billion naira mining intervention fund that was domiciled with the Bank of Industry (BOI) was a federal government intervention to boost mining activities in Nigeria.

He said the initial fund was N2.5 billion but that he had accumulated interest in the bank and N200 million on the interest was disbursed in the form of a loan to artisanal and small-scale miners.

“When it was put in place, it was that from a minimum of N10 million to a maximum of N100 million, people could access five per cent interest rates, and we had some success.

“What we realized now is that there were a lot of little others, artisanal miners, small-scale miners, who didn’t even need N10 million, which was the minimum.

“So they were excluded because you say a minimum of N 10 million, a maximum of N100 million and you know the way the bank is, if you want to take N 10 million from a bank, the guarantee is multiplied by at least two.

“But there are artisanal miners out there who just want to improve their activity, it is to buy a water pump so that they have water to wash their oars, to be able to take out what they need, a N500,000 bump, whatever they need someone to buy for them.

“We excluded them by saying that the minimum you can borrow is N10 million naira, so we put in place another program, under that.”

According to him, some minors were unable to access the fund due to the strict conditions imposed by the bank, but with the compartment of N200 million, it could give a maximum of N2 million to individuals and a minimum of N200 million.

He said, however, that the only condition attached was to obtain a level 14 guarantor in the federal public service or its equivalent in the services.

“It’s to allow all these low-end people to benefit from this new program that I designed when I realized what was happening and it is catching on.

“A lot of these inferior people who need little money are already going to the bank for that.

“There was a program in the past that was not very successful, so this time around we gave the money to the bank.

“It’s not your piece of the national pie, it’s something to help you, it’s the cheapest fund in Nigeria today at five per cent.

“So if it works, yes we can expand that and maybe make more money available up to half a billion, but we have to be careful.

“The average Nigerian thinks this is my piece of the national pie, so when they go to borrow such funds, they don’t want to pay it back.”