The Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) says it has generated N10.9bn between January and April 2025.
The Director-General of the MCO, Mr Stephen Nkom, disclosed this in a statement issued by the Head of Press of the organisation, Mrs Grace Okeke, on Sunday in Abuja.
Nkom explained that the achievement was due to the reforms introduced by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, to reposition the mining sector.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister had disclosed that MCO collected about N7 billion in mining fees and registered 118 new private mineral buying centres in the first quarter of 2025.
Alake said that the fees came from 955 applications for title grants of which 651 were for exploration, 270 for small-scale mining, 49 for Quarrying, and 24 for reconnaissance permits.
The MCO boss stated that the organisation was committed to promoting transparency, accountability and efficiency in the mining sector.
He said the agency’s migration to the digital Electronic Mining Cadastre (eMC+) system in 2022 was a significant step toward enhancing accessibility, automation, and regulatory effectiveness.
According to Nkom, MCO is collaborating with government agencies such as the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Police among others to achieve the feat.
He added that MCO and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), were strengthening their collaboration to ensure that only companies properly registered and compliant with statutory requirements were allowed to operate.
According to Nkom, MCO is ready to provide comprehensive data to CAC on registered companies that are in full compliance with annual return requirements, as the Registrar-General of CAC, Hussaini Magaji, recently paid a courtesy visit to the MCO’s DG where he sought for collaboration in the discharge of their duties.
Magaji said that the collaboration was to ensure that companies operating in the mining sector complied with CAC regulations, including timely filing of annual returns, in order to qualify for and retain mining licences.
