FG Rejects 15,483 Mineral Title Applications, Revokes 4,997

The Mining Cadastre Office (MCO), an agency under the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, has rejected 15,483 of the over 34,000 mineral title applications submitted since its inception.

4,997 approved titles were subsequently revoked by the MCO while 6,588 titles are still active.

Explaining the reasons for rejection of title applications, the Director-General, Engr. Obadiah Nkom, said an application for a mineral title may be refused where an individual is under the age of 18 years or has otherwise been declared bankrupt under any written law or has been convicted of a criminal offence under the act or regulations.

The DG told journalists in Abuja that the agency generated the highest revenue it had ever produced in 2021 in the sum of N4.3 billion.

“On revenue generation, in 2019, N2.580 billion was generated for the federation account, while for 2020, which was the period of the pandemic, MCO surprised everyone by generating N2.303 billion, despite the lockdown. Though the agency has been generating revenue for the government but at a time when everyone was battling the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, the agency generated that much.

“The sum of N2.13 billion was generated in 2017, which though dropped sharply to the sum of N1.55 billion in 2018 and by in 2019, the office raised N2.58 billion which was the second highest since inception of MCO in 2007 and by the first quarter of 2021, from January to May, we were able to rake in N2.016 billion while at December 31, 2021, the revenue generated rose to N4.3 billion, which was the highest revenue generated ever by this office.”