The minister of solid minerals development, Dele Alake, has disclosed that about 252 mining companies have signed Community Development Agreements (CDAs) with their host communities which mandates the companies to provide them with social amenities like water, electricity, schools, and health centres as well as offer scholarships to indigenes.
The minister revealed this yesterday in Abuja during the Launch of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development’s Revised Community Development Agreement (CDA) Guidelines at the sidelines of the ongoing 2023 West African Mining Host Communities INDABA organized by Global Rights, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for sustainable justice.
The minister contended that as mining projects have the potential to impact the Communities in which they are domiciled negatively, it was important that they receive benefits from the resources obtained from their land.
He cited the example of the oil-rich Niger Delta region, and said if this did not happen, the communities would lay continuous complaints and even resist the mining exploration, leading to the closure of activities in the mines.
“The whole idea is that if the mining companies or operators extract minerals of economic value from the Community, then they have some obligations to protect and improve the welfare of the Community.”
The net effect is to enhance quality of life in the broadest possible way, through corporate support of educational institutions, community relation programmes and infrastructural developments, such as construction of roads, markets, hospitals, schools, provision of pipe-borne water, electricity, and other activities that are considered to safeguard the position of the organization,” the minister said.
According to him, the CDAs smoothens the relationships between the companies, their host Communities, the governments, the civil societies and other stakeholders as well as promote sustainable and mutually rewarding benefits from mining projects to the host communities.
“The CDAs in the Mining sector are to ensure that the Mining Communities are carried along by the mining operators; that is why the federal government thought it wise to enshrine Community Development Agreement in the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act (NMMA), 2007. Section 116 (1) of NMMA, 2007 makes Community Development Agreement between the Mineral Title Holders and the Mining Communities mandatory,” he said.
Alake, however, noted some companies were yet to comply with the provision of this Section of the Act but that the Ministry was working hard to ensure that they comply accordingly.
On her part, the permanent secretary in thr Minister, Dr Matry Ogbe, said the Ministry produced a guideline in 2014 for CDAs but that over the years some gaps were identified in them, coupled with complaints and petitions from the communities, which necessitated the review of the CDAs guidelines to meet up with global best practices.
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