…Reps Seek Better Policies for Investment in Gold Mining

… Task Customs on Border Closure

By Jude Opara and Orkula Shaagee, Abuja

 The Senate, yesterday called on the Federal Government to ban importation of textiles materials for a period of five years to allow for the production of locally made ones.

The call came on the heels of the House of Representatives resolution advising on the need for robust policies to facilitate investments in gold mining sector as major source of revenue for the country.

The Senate’s position followed the debate at plenary on a motion sponsored by Kabir Barkiya (APC-Katsina Central) on “Urgent need to Revamp the Nation’s Comatose Textile Industry”.

The Red Chamber equally appealed to the government to provide the necessary infrastructural facilities especially power supply to local textile industries to quicken the resuscitation of the industry.

The lawmakers called on the government to ease access to soft loans for the textile manufacturing companies through the Bank of Industry.

Leading the debate, Barkiya argued that the textile industry in the country played a significant role in the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy with a record of over 140 companies in the 1960s and 1970s with the multiplier effect of job creation.

“The textile industry recorded an annual growth of 67 per cent and as at 1991, employed above 25 per cent of the workers in the manufacturing sector.

“The textile industry was then the highest employer of labour apart from the civil service.”

However, he regretted that the industry had witnessed a massive decline in the last two decades which led to the folding of most of them including the; Kaduna Textile, Kano Textile and Aba Textile among many others.

The lawmaker further said that government policies like increase in taxation, high cost of production, trade liberalisation resulting in massive importation of textile materials had negatively affected the production of local textile materials.

According to Barkiya, the resuscitation of the industry would provide additional revenue and assist the government to diversify the nation’s economy and to create thousands of jobs.

In his contribution, Robert Boroffice (APC-Ondo North) said the importation of textile materials was as a result of the comatose level of the textile industry. He then urged the government to further extend the border closure.

“The closure of our borders is an eye-opener. China closed its borders for 40 years for its industrialisation and development.”

In his intervention, the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP-Abia South), disagreed with Boroffice on the border closure, arguing that closing of the borders would not help to revamp the textile industry.

“Closing the borders and doing nothing will not lead to increase in production of textiles.

“The real problems have been indicated; first, is the fact that we are unable to produce the cotton that we need.

“But far more important is the fact of power. Power was the key problem that made most of the textile mills to close down.

“Once it became very difficult after 1982 for industries to be supplied with power and they needed to switch over to now produce their own power in order to do production, it became a lose, lose situation for most of the industrialists.”

Abaribe, joined in the call for the federal government to provide stable electricity to adding that such would make the smuggling of textile products unprofitable.

For Gabriel Suswam (PDP-Benue North-east), the federal government must address the issue of power generation and distribution if any meaningful profit would be realised from the manufacturing industry in the country.

“If we take concrete actions on these issues, our economy will be enhanced, the welfare of the people will be enhanced, insecurity and by extension, criminality, will be reduced,” he said.

In his remark, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said that as Nigeria had signed the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, “we have to be prepared for the repercussions.

“We cannot stop trading easily with other people. We have to up our game; we need to be competitive,” Mr Lawan said.

Reps Seek Better Policies for Investments in Gold Mining

The House of. Representatives has asked  the Federal Government to create a conducive environment  to facilitate facilitate real investments in gold mining.

The Representatives, made the call yesterday, following a unanimous adoption of a motion moved by Rep. Oghene Egoh (PDP, Lagos) during the plenary presided by Deputy Speaker, Hon.  Idris Wase yesterday.

The motion, titled  “Need to Prioritise Gold Mining as one of the Major Earners of Revenue to the Nation”.

Leading the debate, Egoh recalled that the Federal Government banned all mining activities in Zamfara on April 7.

He said the government also directed all foreigners operating in the mining fields to leave within 48 hours and threatened to revoke the license of any defiant mining operator.

The lawmaker said that Nigeria had about 21.40 tons of gold deposits.

“Therefore, there is the need for many large scale gold mining companies, gold mining policies, state of the art geological survey.

“This includes map production and maintenance of up to date geological records; health and safety inspections and maintenance records; legal records of licences and legal examination of new applications, among others.”

Egoh said, according to reports, Nigeria lost $9 billion to illegal mining every year and many lives were lost due to mining activities that ignored environmental protection policies, while official records showed that mining in Nigeria, however, accounted for 0.3 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Products.

He emphasised that the poor records meant that “the Federal Government may not have official records of the amount of mineral deposits in Nigeria”.

“Which if ascertained, could make the mineral sector one of the largest contributors to Government’s revenues through the payment of royalties, employees income taxes and corporate taxes.”

The house expressed concern that illegal miners cart away billions of dollars’ worth of gold yearly, leaving Zamfara “with poor state of education and inadequate healthcare system”.

The legislature also agreed that 30 per cent derivation from gold earnings would positively boost the economy of the state if the resources were effectively managed by the government.

The green chamber also agreed that the remaining 70 per cent could go into the federation account.

The house also urged the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to provide geological records of Gold deposits in Nigeria and further directed the Committee on Solid Minerals Development to ensure compliance.

Charges Customs to Review Border Closure Policy

The House of Representatives, yesterday urged the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to review the policy on border closure, saying it  ran counter  to the Customs extant Act.

It also urged relevant government agencies to look into the prevailing directive to ameliorate

This development followed an adopted motion on issue of urgent public importance raised by Hon. Asda Soli.

In his lead debate, Soli recalled that Nigeria has 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sharing boundaries with other African countries.

Further, the lawmaker recalled that the Federal government on November 6, ordered that no filling station within two metres close to the border should fill their stations with petrol.

He added that no alternative arrangement was made to lessen the attendant hardship to the people of the affected border communities across the country.

He, therefore, affirmed that the existing directive would cause untold hardship and affect their livelihoods besides unemployment.

In their alternate contributions, majority of the lawmakers agreed that the directive should be reviewed to avert the outlined consequences in consideration of the yuletide season being afoot.

“The Yuletide is around the corner. This is not acceptable. The House should look into this issue with human face. If we push our neighbours to the wall, I don’t know what will happen”.