About 1,264 mining licences are to be deleted from the Electronic Mining Cadastral System portal of the Nigerian Mining Cadastral Office due to failure by the companies to comply with payment of their annual service fees.
The minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, disclosed this in a statement issued by his special assistant on Media, Segun Tomori in Abuja.
According to the statement, the latest revocation brings to 3,794 the total mineral titles revoked under the current administration comprising 619 mineral titles revoked for defaulting in paying annual service fees and 912 for dormancy last year.
By opening up the areas formerly covered by these licenses, the revocation is expected to spur fresh applications by investors looking for fresh opportunities.
The statement read, “Not less than 1,263 mineral licences will be deleted from the portal of the Electronic Mining Cadastral system of the Nigerian Mining Cadastral Office, MCO, following their revocation by the Federal Government.
“These include 584 exploration licenses, 65 mining leases, 144 quarry licenses, and 470 small-scale mining leases.”
Approving the revocation following the recommendation of the MCO, the Minister said applying the law to keep speculators and unserious investors away from the mining sector would make way for diligent investors and grow the sector.
“The era of obtaining licences and keeping them in drawers for the highest bidder, while financially capable and industrious businessmen are complaining of access to good sites, is over.
“The annual service fee is the minimum evidence that you are interested in mining. You don’t have to wait for us to revoke the licence because the law allows you to return the license if you change your mind,” the minister said.
He warned that the revocation does not mean the Federal Government has pardoned the annual service debt owed by licencees, adding that the list will be forwarded to the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission to ensure that debtors pay or face the wrath of the law.
“This is to encourage due diligence and emphasise the consequences of inundating the license application processes with speculative activities.”
In the recommendation to the minister, the Director-General of the MCO, Simon Nkom, disclosed that there were 1,957 initial defaulters when the MCO published the intention to revoke licences in the Federal Government Gazette on June 19, 2025.
He informed the minister that the gazette was distributed to MCO offices nationwide to sensitise licencees and encourage them to comply within 30 days in compliance with the Minerals and Mining Act 2007 and relevant regulations.
He observed that the delay in the final recommendation was due to complaints of several licensees who claimed to have paid to the Federal Government through Remita and had to be reconciled.
Earlier this month, the DG MCO had hinted that more mining licences would be revoked as part of ongoing efforts to sanitise the solid minerals sector and protect investors from fraudsters.
According to Nkom, the clean-up exercise, which covers expired, speculative, and inactive titles, is necessary to make room for genuine investors and ensure compliance with the law.
This is part of ongoing efforts at sanitising the sector since the inception of the Tinubu administration, and the salutary effects of the reforms are massive and manifest despite the attempts to push back by defaulters and their agents.
