Realising The Untapped Potentials of Nigeria’s Mining Sector: Policy, Legal and Institutional Reform Imperatives forNigeria
Keywords:
Realising Untapped potentials, Mining sector, Policy and Legal reformAbstract
Nigeria is endowed with 44 different mineral occurrences in about 450 locations in virtually all States of the federation. Despite this huge endowment, Nigeria is not reckoned with as a mining jurisdiction but rather as an Oil and Gas jurisdiction. This is because the mining sector progressively suffered decline since the discovery of Crude Oil and its commercial exploitation. Consequently, the sector’s contribution to GDP which stood at 4 per cent in the 1960s and 70s declined to less than 1 per cent in the 1990s. To stem the decline, Government aggressively pursued reforms from 2002 to reposition the Mining sector as a source of revenue and foreign exchange earnings. However, over 2 decades of implementing the reforms, Nigeria is yet to realise the potentials of the mining sector. Deploying the doctrinal research methodology, the paper examines the factors they have been responsible for the decline of the sector. It posits that the untapped potential of the mining sector can be realised by adopting key reforms in the policy, legal and institutional framework. It proceeds to outline the reforms that should be adopted and other strategies to realise the untapped potentials of the mining sector. The paper recommends the articulation of a new Mining Policy that aligns with the African Mining Vision (AMV) to promote inclusive and broad-based development of the sector and concludes that such a policy will determine the type of legislation, regulations and institutions that will be required to invigorate the mining sector.
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