The federal government has been urged to invest in the training and purchasing of mining equipment for artisanal miners as part of efforts to reduce youths involvement in crime.
The Chairman, Artisanal Miners and Coal Buyers Association in Kogi State, Gabriel Onoja, made this call during a sensitisation and training programme organised by the miners association of Ofu Local Government Area of the state at weekend.
Onoja explained that the staff members from the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development were on ground to facilitate the training for the selected youths.
He attributed idleness and lack of jobs to youth restiveness and crime, noting that the government should urgently make the mining sector attractive to small and artisanal miners.
Onoja, however, praised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for formalising artisanal mining and their activities, noting that the decision was a noble one.
The chairman, who has organised the miners and had some groups registered, called on the federal government to make provision for mining equipment to them on single digit interest loan.
According to him, “This arrangement, if actualised, youths restiveness and other forms of societal ills in the society will be addressed,” saying the youths would now channelled their time and energy to productive economic activities with income generating outcomes.
“With this, the youths will now smile to the bank, government’s revenue will increase and the haulage operators would not also be left out of economic gains.
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“I am also appealing to the government to assist us with pay loaders, trailers, tractors excavators and other important mining machines to facilitate the mining of coal and its eventual transportation to the end users.
“Training of our members on modern mining techniques to keep them updated, approval and quick access to loans and grants to aid our operations, provision of paramedics for cases of emergency and other hazards on site as well as issuance of insurance cover for artisanal miners,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, the state Chairman of Miners Association of Nigeria, Oruma Yunusa, admonished mining companies to always engage in an open agreement to avoid incessant crises with host communities.
The Technical Assistant at the Ministry of Mines and Steel, who facilitated the training, Obazi Uwadegwu, promised that the federal government would assist artisanal and small scale miners in Kogi State with grant and incentives to enhance mining activities in the state.
