The Federal Government has revoked 924 dormant licenses spanning exploration, mining, small-scale mining, and quarrying Licenses.

This is in furtherance of efforts to sanitise the mining sector.

Making the announcement on Wednesday at a press conference, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake declared that in line with constitutional provisions, adequate notice was given to all concerned parties through the official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, No. 227, which was published on December 27, 2023.

“The notice gave all concerned parties 30 days to regularise their status, including clarifications on what caused the license to be dormant. Thus, although a total of 963 licensees were published and notified of the threat of revocation, no fewer that 39 either moved to site immediately or convinced the authorities of the challenges hindering their operations”, the Minister asserted.

In view of the foregoing, Alake affirmed the revocation of 928 dormant licenses, which include 528 exploration licenses; 20 mining leases; 101 quarry licenses, and 273 Small Scale Mining Licenses (SSML).

Speaking further, the Minister stated that the action followed due process and fair consideration while it underscored the commitment of the Federal Government to implement the standard policy of “Use it or Lose it” as enshrined in mining guidelines.

According to Alake, “Investors across the globe are now free to apply for any of the affected Cadastral Units on the basis of “first come, first served.” It is our belief that this decision will sanitise the licensing system by penalising those who have commercialised the opportunities offered by the sector into a bazaar.”

Noting that the revocation was not meant to be punitive, the Minister announced an opportunity for affected licensees to make restitution, imposing fines for different categories of revoked licenses, stressing that this also applied to the 1,633 titles revoked last year for default in payment of annual service fees.

“For revoked Mining Licenses, a fine of N10m applies; N7.5m for Small Scale Mining License (SSML) while N5m for Exploration License (EL). They will be required to make the payments within 30 days to qualify for consideration,” Alake emphasised.

The Minister warned that henceforth, the Federal Government would not tolerate the nefarious activities of license racketeering or those that obtain licenses for speculation in order to offer them to the highest bidder.

“A good lesson from this exercise is for investors to do their homework and be ready to flag off their projects as soon as they obtain licenses. Nigeria is open for business, and we shall encourage smart, serious, and adventurous investors to set up and provide jobs to our teeming youths,” Alake added.

The Rwandan Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Christophe Bazivamo has said that his country is ready to establish economic and educational relationships with Ogun State for mutual benefits of both parties.

Ambassador Bazivamo, who stated this while fielding questions from newsmen after a meeting with Governor Dapo Abiodun in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, noted that Ogun State has achieved much in the area of education and industrialization, hence the need for his home country to tap from the experience.

He said: “I have participated in the ongoing trade organized by the state government. At the fair, I had the opportunity to interact with the governor, and I am here in his office to share what we are doing back home and learn from the governor’s development strides.

“I am also here to find out how we can move forward together because my country believes in the South-South cooperation, and we know that Ogun State is doing well in the industry, education, and other areas.

“When you are developing industry as the right choice and in the right direction, especially in a state where more than 65 to 70 percent of the population are young people, you are creating jobs and once people are consuming locally made products, it helps grow local industries and makes jobs available for the people.”

The Envoy said Rwanda is looking at how to further develop its industries to produce goods and skills for the youths to help them prosper.

He said his country was thinking in the direction of establishing and strengthening relationship with Nigerian businessmen, saying that Rwandan Private Sector Federation is ready to go into partnership with the Ogun State Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, trade together, exchange ideas and work on building sustainable partnership.

Ambassador Bazivamo revealed that Rwanda and Nigeria have already signed an agreement on the Joint Permanent Commission for Cooperation, but we are waiting for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for even planning and perfection before implementation.

“I also discussed with the governor how our businessmen can collaborate and be of help to each other because this is something that can be helpful to both sides, especially our young generation.

“We believe in partnership. We also believe in the African Continental Trade Area. You can not move alone in that direction. You need to be together with others. When you see traders wherever they are, they have innovation, and when you see what they have compared to what you have, you will wish to link together.

“What I have seen in Ogun State when it comes to industries, is that they are producing locally and I believe some people can come from Rwanda, learn from here and take the lesson back and replicate it in our country,” the Ambassador added.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery has again announced a further reduction in the prices of both diesel and aviation fuel to N940, N980 per litre respectively.

This is coming at the wake of its widely celebrated price reduction to N1,000 barely two weeks ago.

The price change of N940 is applicable to customers buying five million litres and above from the refinery, while the price of N970 is for customers buying one million litres and above.

Speaking on the new development, the Head of Communication, Mr Anthony Chiejina, explained that the new price is in consonance with the company’s commitment to cushion the effect of economic hardship in Nigeria.

“I can confirm to you that Dangote Petroleum Refinery has entered a strategic partnership with MRS Oil and Gas stations, to ensure that consumers get to buy fuel at affordable price, in all their stations be it Lagos or Maiduguri. You can buy as low as 1 litre of diesel at N1,050 and aviation fuel at N980 at all major airports where MRS operates.”

He further stated that the partnership will be extended to other major oil marketers. “The essence of this is to ensure that retail buyers do not buy at exorbitant prices.

“The Dangote Group is committed to ensuring that Nigerians have a better welfare and as such, we are happy to announce this new prices and hope that it would go a long way to cushion the effect of economic challenges in the country.

It would be recalled that the management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery announced a further reduction of the price of diesel from 1200 to 1,000 Naira per litre barely two weeks ago.

This marks the third major reduction in diesel price in less than three weeks when the product sold at N1,700 to N1,200 and also a further reduction to N1,000 and now N940 for diesel and N980 for aviation fuel per litre.