388 mineral buying centres established in 2024, over 350 illegal miners arrested – Alake

Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, has disclosed that 388 mineral buying centres were created in 2024 as part of measures to sanitise the mining sector and improve revenue collection.

Alake spoke on Monday at the National Assembly during an appearance before the Joint Committee on Solid Minerals, where he presented a detailed account of the Ministry’s 2024 budget implementation and outlined projections for 2026.

Highlighting key interventions carried out in the past year, the minister said the establishment of regulated buying centres and the training of artisanal miners were central to the Ministry’s reform efforts.

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“We were able to establish about 388 mineral buying centers in the year under review and of course, we train artisanal miners,” he said.

Nigeria’s mining industry has long been dominated by informal operators, particularly artisanal and small-scale miners who function outside official structures.

This has historically limited the government’s oversight capacity and weakened its ability to track mineral output, enforce compliance, and collect statutory payments.

The buying centres are designed to function as approved transaction points where miners can legally dispose of their products to licensed off-takers.

By institutionalising mineral sales at community level, the Government aims to ensure proper documentation of production volumes and reduce leakages across the value chain.

A major concern in recent years has been the illegal export of high-value minerals such as gold and lithium. In the absence of traceable channels, significant quantities have reportedly left the country without generating due royalties or export duties.

Officials believe the buying centres will enhance traceability and strengthen accountability within the sector.

The minister also pointed to stepped-up enforcement activities in 2024 through the Mining Marshals, a specialised task force operating under the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

According to him, the initiative has begun to yield results.

“We were able to strengthen the surveillance task force operations throughout the country and the mine marshal that we started in 2024 actually set a very strong signal to the sector and it was able to arrest a lot of illegal miners, more than 350 have been arrested by the mine marshals and over 150 have been prosecuted while others are still undergoing prosecution. We’re not relenting,” he said.

Illegal mining has continued to undermine the sector, with unlicensed operators extracting minerals without regulatory approval and selling through informal networks.

Beyond depriving the Government of revenue, such activities have contributed to environmental damage, unsafe mining practices and, in some regions, security challenges.

Alake further explained that the Ministry moved to regularise artisanal miners by encouraging them to form cooperatives, thereby transitioning them into recognised entities within the mining ecosystem.

“We also achieved the formalisation of artisanal miners, we encourage artisanal miners who hitherto were regarded as illegal miners but they’re actually artisanal miners and they’re very integral in the entire value chain, we call them junior miners in some instances.

“We were able to encourage them to form cooperative so that they will no longer be labelled illegal miners, they’ll become formalised structures and then they’ll become bankable and they can attract financing for themselves and then government can also demand and receive revenue in terms of royalties, tactics and civic communications, that one have been going on very encouraging as well.”

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He said the cooperative model allows miners to access financing while ensuring that the government receives royalties and other statutory payments.

Providing figures on budget performance, the minister said the ministry implemented roughly 80% of its N31.24 billion 2024 appropriation.

He added that revenue generation surpassed expectations.

“We recorded about 80% revenue performance for 2024, we targeted a revenue drive of N11.8 billion but as at the end of that budgetary cycle, we were able to collect over N28 billion, so we got more than double,” he said.

He was, however, interrupted while attempting to speak on the 2025 budget performance by Gaza Gbefwi, the Chairman of the House Committee on Solid Minerals.

During the deliberations, lawmakers proposed placing the Ministry of Solid Minerals on first-line charge of the federation account; a move Alake endorsed, urging the committee to lend its support.