No waivers for mining title defaulters -DG
By Francisca Oluyole
The Mining Cadestre Office (MCO) said no waivers for mineral title holders that failed to pay annual service fees.
Mr Obadiah Nkom, MCO Director General, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
Nkom said the Nigeria Mning Act, 2007 did not stiputulate or indicate that a waiver should be given to mineral title holders as a result of any pandemic.
He said that some of the defaulters complained that they were unable to pay their fees due to COVID-19 and insecurity that prevented them from operating.
NAN recalls that MCO had issued a month default notice to 2,763 mineral title defaulters early January and to expire on Feb. 10.
MCO has made public the names of companies and mineral title holders who are yet to pay their annual service fees.
The office warned that failure of the defaulters to pay their debts as stipulated by the Nigeria MIneral Act, 2007, would lead to the revocation of their mining titles after expiration date of the notice.
MCO has stated that it would strictly enforce the ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ principle if defaulters fail to comply after the deadline.
There are companies with mineral titles but failed to use the titles, and failed to pay dues accruable to the government.
According to Nkom, no section in the Act that talks about waiver, no section talks about pandemic. I work with the law and anything that is outside the law, I don’t have any power.
“Waiver of debt is not in the Mining Act, even, royalty which is not under my purview, the law indicates that the Minister can defer royalties with the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
” It is a regular process every licence holder is obligated by law to pay annual service fees, once a licence is given to a miner, is an obligation that must be accepted.
“The revocation is done with the approval of the Minister of Mines and Steel Development in view of our statutory responsibility.
“We sent the default notices through registered posts, publications, bulk SMS, and we also put it on our website to avoid defaulters denying that he or she did not get the notice,” he said.
He said that Government did not delight in revoking licences and at the same time we believe that licensees should live up to expections by paying up their annual dues.
“We are almost at the expiration date. Some have complied while some are yet to, we will compile the names and companies that did not pay and send to the Minister for revocation approval.
“We will make sure that after revoking the licence, the defaulters still pay up their debts.”
The DG said that some foreign mining title holders were among the defaulters listed but most of them have complied to avoid embarrassment.
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