Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has decried the activities of illegal gold miners, which cost the country about $3bn between 2012 and 2018.
Speaking at the official presentation of locally-mined gold bars by the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative in Abuja on Thursday, Buhari reaffirmed his government’s commitment to establish gold refineries in the country.
According to him, improved mining would generate no fewer than 250,000 jobs and over $500m yearly in royalties and taxes.
He said the initiative would also support efforts at diversifying the nation’s revenue base, and improving its foreign exchange reserves.
“With the implementation of the PAGDMI scheme, which will result in the establishment of accredited gold-buying centres across key mining areas, artisanal miners and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises engaged in mining will be able to capture the value of their work.
These operations will help in diversifying our revenue base. The sale of gold by artisanal miners and SMEs at accredited centres will help the government in realising royalties and taxes from the sale of these assets.
“These developments will also help in improving our foreign reserves by enabling the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase the amount of gold in its reserves. These gold assets, which will be purchased in naira, will not only help to bolster our international reserves, it will also provide a hedge against inflation and other economic volatilities associated with foreign currencies that are held in our reserves,” Buhari said.
He, however, said his administration was prepared to redress the situation.
