If you give a grant of $50,000 to a medium scale miner, it may not mean much to him, but to artisanal miners, $50,000 will do a lot of magic. If you pull them together into a group of about 10 to 20, you will be amazed by what these people can produce on a weekly basis. It will be tremendous and the impact on the industry will be great.” 

This was the reaction of the excited National President of Miners Association of Nigeria, Mr. Sunday Ekozin, in Jos at the presentation of the nationwide baseline study on artisanal and small-scale miners in Nigeria and the modalities for the disbursement of micro grants. 

Like her sister West African country, Ghana, whose economy depends largely on proceeds from mining, Nigeria is blessed with about 34 mineral deposits, a number of which are commercially viable. 

But, for some reasons, which include the discovery of crude oil, the exploitation of the nation‘s solid mineral deposits had been left to artisanal and small scale-miners, who carry out over 95 per cent of the mining currently taking place in the country today. 

And for their operations, these people use direct labour, including child labour, poor technology and inadequate infrastructure. 

Their operations are also characterised by low productivity, lack of capital, poor health conditions, sterilisation of good deposits, pollution, crime and social unrests among the communities. 

With ASM you can also experience extensive land degradation and very hazardous working conditions, sometimes leading to loss of lives during operations. 

On the economic plain, the miners hardly add value to the various mineral products they exploit, resulting in yet another revenue loss to the country. 

This was the scenario, which the World Bank set out to help Nigeria change in 2005 when it granted the country $120m credit under the Sustainable Management of Mineral Resources Project. 

The bank specifically carved out $10m in the credit for the development of the artisanal and small scale miners; but unfortunately, the fund had been idle. 

While other components of the credit for the development of Mining Cadastre system and improvement of the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency to generate minimal geophysical information had been activated, the subset meant for bringing up artisanal and small scale miners was in limbo due to inconsistencies in government policies. 

Some former ministers of the sector did not appreciate why government or even the World Bank needed to intervene in mining, especially at the small-scale level, which they believed should be the preserve of the private sector. They even suggested committing the grant to other infrastructural uses. 

Owing to such views, the $10m remained in limbo and the continuation of the project under threat.  

And that was a key sticky point during the recent mid-term review workshop of the project by the World Bank. 

The Task Team Leader, Mr. Craig Andrews who awarded Nigeria high marks for the application of the $120m credit observed, ”On the 10 stipulated performance indicators, this project has already fully accomplished six. We have additional work to do, especially in stimulating non-farm income and developing artisanal and small scale miners. 

We have four indicators for those activities and we will have discussions on how we can achieve them.” 

Perhaps, fired by the goading of the World Bank and what the coordinator of the project, Mr. Linus Adie, described as the present administration‘s emphasis on grassroots development, modalities are now being put in place to activate the $10m credit. 

There is no gainsaying that artisanal and small-scale miners need assistance, bearing in mind that they provide the most sustainable income for many less privileged Nigerians in remote communities and employ more than two million people. 

Speaking in Jos, the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Alhalji Ahmed Mohamed Gusau, explained that the miners could be developed to provide livelihood for millions of Nigerians, adding that it was imperative to organise them so as to provide the necessary synergy between them and the big-time miners when they come. 

He said, ”Government is convinced that if the ASM operations are well organised and developed, it will generate wealth, reduce poverty and lead to accelerated growth in the rural communities.”  

Giving further details, the minister explained that the $10m credit from the World Bank would be disbursed as micro credit to artisanal and small-scale miners and mining communities. 

He said, ”The fund is designed to finance equipment, training and support services to scale up the operations and improve livelihoods in the ASM mines. 

”It will also fund social and physical infrastructure or provide diversification of livelihoods in mining communities.” 

Gusau indicated that the strategy of the ministry was also aimed at promoting access to finance and product markets and improving health and safety practices. 

He added, ”A ministerial department has been established with the sole mandate of assisting the artisanal and small scale miners. The department will provide extension services from the exploration stage to exploitation, marketing and finance. The major issues of environment, health and safety will be addressed by the technical department of the ministry.”  

But a key criterion for benefiting is that the miners form themselves into cooperative societies. 

In fact, the minister warned that after making efforts to reform and assist the miners, the Federal Government will no longer tolerate illegal mining in the country. 

So, should Nigerians now expect a revolution in the mining sector with the imminent disbursement of the credit?  

While Ekozin was expectant that once his colleagues got the assistance, which they had lacked for decades, the production of solid minerals would increase tremendously in the next few months, Adie was more cautious. 

He told our correspondent on the telephone that mining had a long gestation period and as such the earliest realistic time to expect appreciable results from the grants would be after one year or more.

Adie also preferred to refer to the $10m credit for ASM as an effort to alleviate poverty, which could only get to a percentage of the two million artisanal miners in Nigeria, most of whom are nomadic. 

The expectation, he explained, was that the disbursement would be a continuous exercise which should galvanise the informal mining operators to form themselves into cooperatives for optimal performance. 

He confirmed that the Project Management Unit of the fund, which he heads would start this week to put in place structures for the disbursement of the credit.

The minimum number of miners who can form a cooperative society for the purposes of the credit is 10 persons, while $50,000 about (N6m) is the maximum value any group can get. 

Adie stressed that no group would get assistance in cash. Instead the funds will go into paying for services, purchase of equipment, which will be dependent on the cooperative paying the matching grant to a bank or submitting a verifiable evidence of the grant in-kind being proposed. 

Other qualifications include holding a small-scale mining license or quarry lease and opening a bank account. 

Slightly different criteria will be applied for selecting community development projects that can be covered by the World Bank credit.  

Expectedly, the miners are already being prepared to receive these grants. Adie explained, ”We have started talking to the cooperatives. We are training them on how to manage their funds, how to investigate and give them the necessary extension services. We will also encourage banks to appreciate the mining industry and give the miners some sustainability. As such we are preparing another course for the banks, to give them the rudiments of mining.”  

Above all, there will be coordinators and consultants at various levels working with the miners so as to ensure effective monitoring. 

It may not be Uhuru yet for artisanal and small-scale mining in Nigeria, but the journey has started off with lots of promise.

“Punch Newspaper. Sunday, 20 Jul 2008”